Abstract
Archaeological investigations in Tornimäe in the eastern part of the island Saaremaa took place in 1963, 1968 and 2004. Artefacts found during the excavations are mainly dated to the Viking Age. Most of the finds are pottery shards, some metal artefacts were found, and also animal bones. The majority of mammal bones are bones of domestic animals. Nearly half of these are caprine bones, bones of cattle, pig and horse are less numerous. Wild game bones are few, only seals were hunted more often. Bird and fish bones are also represented. Only a few bone artefacts were among the finds, more fragments of bone items were found among the animal bones during the identification of osteological material. The bone artefacts found in Tornimäe are rather simple items which do not require special skills from the bone worker and could have been made by the users of these artefacts. The uses of bone artefacts are well suited with the location of the site at the seashore.
Highlights
The Tornimäe site is located in the eastern part of the island Saaremaa (Fig. 1)
By Kustin, was carried out in 1968, when about 1600 square metres of the settlement were destroyed by road building
Aita Kustin (1967) interpreted the site as an ordinary settlement, in the opinion of Marika Mägi the site, located on the sea shore was used as a harbour (Mägi, 2002, p. 189, fig. 8; 2005, p. 66 ff., fig. 1, 2; 2010, p. 169–171, fig. 2, 3)
Summary
The Tornimäe site is located in the eastern part of the island Saaremaa (Fig. 1). Nowadays it is about 2 km from the sea, but in the Viking Age the site was on the seashore, where, according to the contour lines, sea was deep enough to be navigated by sea-going vessels. If the stem was made from wood, the small bone point would be the only part to preserve from such a hook Another group of bone items from Tornimäe are bone fragments with one side carefully polished (Fig. 12). In cases it was possible to identify the used material, they have been made from cattle and horse bones Most of these objects are quite fragmentary, but some of them have arcs left by the edges of holes made through the bones, indicating that they may be fragments of bone skates (Fig. 13). The earliest bone skates in Estonia known to date have been found from Viking Age sites These skates have transverse holes at both ends and are usually made of horse bones Fragments found in Tornimäe have use wear on their smooth facets, indicating their use as skates (Fig. 15–17; compare e.g. MacGregor, 1975, fig. 2, 3; 1985, fig. 75; Becker, 1990, fig. 4; Choyke & Bartosiewicz, 2005, fig. 6; Küchelmann & Zidarov, 2005, fig. 13)
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