Land and sea animal remains from Middle Neolithic Pitted Ware sites on Gotland Island in the Baltic Sea, Sweden

Prehistoric bone material from Gotland Island situated in the centre of the Baltic Sea (Figure 1) is remarkably well preserved due to the island’s limestone substrate. Archaeological research and excavation has been ongoing on the island since the beginning of last century (Wennersten 1907; Nihlén 1927; Stenberger et al. 1943), and the use of traditional farming methods has spared many prehistoric sites from destruction. The numerous archaeological excavations have resulted in a large and well-documented sample of human and animal bone material from Mesolithic and Neolithic sites. The bones occur both as food residue in occupation areas and as human remains in graves, which are sometimes associated with grave goods in the form of worked and unworked animal bone. In this paper, I investigate differences in the faunal assemblages recovered from five Pitted Ware sites dating to the Middle-Late Neolithic using a statistical comparison, and then examine whether the inter-site variation was caused by site chronology and environmental variability, or whether the difference might be due to cultural practices, such as the use of particular animals as symbols of group identity by Pitted Ware communities.