Hi Kevin,
dogs are frequent in Iron Age cremations in Scandinavia, at least from Roman to Viking Age. I have never heard of any grave containing just the bacculum of a dog. Could it be in your case that the bone was left in the fur when the dog was skinned (if it was skinned). But you don't have any bones from the feet, so maybe it was not a dog skin after all. A talisman seems to be a long shot, but who knows. Look through the complete material from the cremation once again and look for more pieces of the bacculum to see if there are any cut marks, perforations or somethging else that indicates that it was borne in a string as a necklace or so.
Leif Jonsson
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