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Hi Jacqui, If you can wait until the beginning of July, I can check my Swedish references when I'm home on holiday. But I'm sure there are other Scandinavian zooarchaeologists on this list that are closer to the relevant articles than I am right now. Sadly Bengt Wigh died last year (or the year before last?), so any Birka quistions you have must be directed to other people. /Lena -----Original Message----- From: Analysis of animal remains from archaeological sites [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of Jacqui Mulville Sent: 15 May 2008 11:09 To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Scandinavian zooarchaeology - where are all the deer? Hello all, I am looking for information in order to compare the use of wild resources (particuarly deer) in the viking homelands and over on the Scottish Isles. On South Uist we have evidence for large scale antler comb production, which may be related to the relavtive abundance of deer on the outer and inner hebrides. On the Norhtern Isles red deer die out before or as the Norse settlers arrive. I was hoping to look for information on Viking Age attitudes to deer in Scandinavia, but my studies so far have revealed a. few large assemblages, b. an obsession with fur animals and c. very little exploitaiton of red deer. Hmmmm. For example in the recently published Birka (Wigh) has almost no deer nor does Kaupang (Barrett et al) and I can find mention of only rare bits of deer in the other (somewhat strange) range of published material I have in my Norse/Viking boxfile. Can anyone point me towards further information or additional references? A general historical zoology of deer species in scandinvia? And other sources of information on useful assemblges. In the UK the islands stand out as one of the few places that red deer populations remain a significant part of the economy throughout prehistory and on the Hebrides into history, are wild food mammals less commonly exploited in Scandinavia? Obviously a trade in antler for comb making is part of this (e.g. Ashby), but we have comb making and deer hunting so I would like any information on the hunting practises - or lack of them. Did the hebrides provide a happy hunting ground as well as raw materails? Now my grasp of scandinavian languages is weak (though we do have someone in the deptarment who can translate for me). I have tried to find a way of contacting Bengt Wigh but google has let me down, can anyone point me in the direction of his email or to anyone else who would be helpful . Perhaps I need to tour scandinavia chatting to zooarchaeologists - now that sounds like a good idea! Off to write a grant application! Thanks for any help and ideas. Jacqui ------ Files attached to this email may be in ISO 26300 format (OASIS Open Document Format). If you have difficulty opening them, please visit http://iso26300.info for more information.