Aurochs

 

Aurochs 







The following commentary is from:- "Excavation of a Neolithic farmstead at Knap of Howar, Papa Westray, Orkney" by Anna Ritchie

And is in :-

"APPENDIX 4: ANIMAL BONE FROM KNAP OF HOWAR, B A NODDLE, Department of Anatomy, University College, Cardiff"


There, the author discusses the dimensions and probable sizes of cattle bones found on the site, suggesting that they are close to aurochs in size.


"As Watson stated in his Skara Brae report, the cattle are indeed large. The measurements set outin fig 20 are considerably larger than the writer has encountered at other periods, being roughly similar toa collection of Friesian beef cattle in her collection (these were not fully grown animals). Fig 20 also contains an estimate of body weight reduced from various measurements on the astragalus which originallyderived from these same Friesian cattle in part (Noddle 1973). The lightest of these animals overlap theheaviest weights found for later animals (Saxon, from Norfolk; Noddle 1975). Fig 21 comprises a comparison of the width of the first phalanx compared with two groups of English Neolithic cattle from Durrington Walls (Harcourt in Wainwright & Longworth1971,265-76) and Windmill Hill (Grigson in Smith1965,141-67) and with a collection of Danish Maglemosian aurochs taken from Grigson (1969). The Knap of Howar specimens are rather larger than both these English examples and overlap the lighter aurochs. Furthermore, they form a continuous series, whereas both English sites include a few discrete larger specimens which were designated wild aurochs by their authors. The Knap of Howar specimens are comparable with certain continental examples discussed by Grigson (1969) and believed by her and the continental authors to be recently domesticated aurochs. This explanation would seem to apply to Knap of Howar material."


The following chart extracts dates of death of cattle/aurochs in Orkney for the Neolithic period. The sources for this work are:-

To cut a long story short: formal chronological modelling for the Late Neolithic site of Ness of Brodgar, Orkney by Nick Card et al

Beside the Ocean of Time: a chronology of Neolithic burial monuments and houses in Orkney, by Seren Griffiths 

The limits of the dates of death of each beast are given by the sources as better than 95% accurate, and this leads to some lengthy periods of time in which an animal may have died. Over-lengthy periods of death possibility have been removed from the chart.

The sites covered include the Knap of Howar, the Ness of Brodgar, and many Orkney cairns. 





This is one of a loosely attached group of blogs called the "Orkney Riddle".

The key blog to the group is called the "Neolithic Immigrants to Britain" 


All views and opinions expressed are my own, but it remains a work-in-progress for which positive criticism and comment is welcomed.


Jeffery Nicholls 

South Ronaldsay 

Orkney 

Jiffynorm@yahoo.co.uk 



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