Archaeologia Islandica - 01.01.2010, Page 67

SMALL HOLDER FARMING IN EARLY MEDIEVAL ICELAND: SKUGGI IN HÖRGÁRDALUR
sheep/goats from all contexts and allows
for a thorough comparison of caprine age
at death during Later Viking Age (Phase
II), the mid 1 lth c. (Phase III), and Early
Middle Ages (Phases IV and V) at
Skuggi.
The Later Viking Age (Phase II)
caprine age at death profile loosely
agrees with the long bone fusion study:
About 35 % of sheep/goats were culled
after their first summer, but only about 5
% butchered at neonatal stage. About 60
% of the sheep/goats from phase II sur-
vived their first winter; about 30 % lived
to an age beyond 2-2 1/2 years. During
the mid 1 lth c. (Phase III), about 15 % of
the newbom caprines were culled before,
and about 30 % after their first summer.
About 50 % of the caprines lived through
their first winter, and just above 30 % of
the sheep/goats lived beyond 2 years of
age. Numbers for the early medieval
phases (Phases IV and V) are less abun-
dant than those from earlier cultural lay-
ers and the data itself provides a different
culling pattern. About 13 % of the
caprines from the upper midden layers
were slaughtered before, and another 13
% after their first summer. More than 70
% lived to be at least 2 years of age and
beyond.
Below, the caprine tooth wear data
from graph 10 is presented in a different
way, with only a mean of wom mandibu-
lar M3 teeth used. This method still uses
the Grant (1982) Mandibular Wear Stage
Caprine M3 Mean TWS (Grant)
12
SKÖPHIV GÁS 14th c SKÖ PH III SKÖ PHII HSTPhl HSTPhll-lll SVKAII
Figure 11. Caprine M3 mean TWS (after Grant 1982). NB. This graph serves not as a
statistical tool to support a hypothesis but is useful when presenting a trend in the site ’s
caprine management.
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