Active Whaling, Opportunistic Scavenging or Long-Distance Trading: Zooarchaeological, Palaeoproteomic, and Historical Analyses on Whale Exploitation and Bone Working in Anglo-Saxon Hamwic

Abstract

THE ANGLO-SAXON SITE OF HAMWIC (modern Southampton, Hampshire, UK) has been identified as a major bone-working centre. Besides antler and terrestrial mammal bone, cetacean bone has been recovered in high quantities. These specimens primarily represent working waste. Using peptide mass fingerprinting of bone collagen (ZooMS), it was determined that the majority of these specimens derive from the currently highly endangered population of North Atlantic right whale (Eubalaena glacialis). Limited historical sources appear to suggest that whaling was undertaken by the Anglo-Saxons, or by the Normans on the other side of the English Channel prior to the eleventh century ad. Nevertheless, the primary method of acquisition for whale bone was through opportunistic scavenging and trading.