Mysterious Animal Burials / Animal Graves

[IbisNibs]

Would there be unusual amounts of salt residue if the porpoise had been packed in salt? Are there any other examples of this type of food storage at this site or others? I wish they gave more details about the grave or whatever it was, and whether the porpoise was cut up. as if butchered, or in one piece.
Interesting the grave was alongside the graves of monks, and aligned East to West as is the custom in Christian burial.

 

[EnolaGaia]

... I wish they gave more details about the grave or whatever it was, and whether the porpoise was cut up. as if butchered, or in one piece. ...

This 2018 BBC article about the porpoise grave:

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-guernsey-46037369

... twice mentions the archaeologist (de Jersey) alluding to butchering, but it never explicitly states the porpoise remains indicated the animal had been butchered.

It is possible the mammal was butchered and preserved underground, according to the archaeologist who unearthed the animal.
Dr de Jersey said he now believed the animal was butchered and placed underground, possibly in a salty brine, to be eaten ...

 

[EnolaGaia]

This 2017 posting on the Guernsey Museums' Facebook page states the grave contained "the skull and part of the remains of a porpoise ..." This would seem to support the idea the porpoise had been butchered.

https://www.facebook.com/GuernseyMuseums/photos/a.150400921694296/1671659656235074

 

[EnolaGaia]

Would there be unusual amounts of salt residue if the porpoise had been packed in salt? ...

One might think so, but ... The timespan (over 500 years) and site (right by the shore) might have eliminated or complicated any evidence of the remains having been packed in salt.

 

[IbisNibs]

If I ever decide to become an executive, can I hire you to be my assistant, Enola Gaia?
(Translate: I feel really lazy for not reading the earlier articles before blurting out my questions—thanks again for sharing your brain power!)

 

[maximus otter]

This 2017 posting on the Guernsey Museums' Facebook page states the grave contained "the skull and part of the remains of a porpoise ..." This would seem to support the idea the porpoise had been butchered.

https://www.facebook.com/GuernseyMuseums/photos/a.150400921694296/1671659656235074

If the porpoise had been butchered, then stored in salt for later consumption, why would they include the head? Were pickled porpoise brains a delicacy?

maximus otter

 

[JaneD]

There was an article a few years ago on the BBC news site ( which I can’t bloody find now) about an indigenous whale hunter describing a hunt where they killed a female whale and found that she had been pregnant. They buried the foetus overlooking the sea in a special ceremony. I wonder if this was something similar, maybe respecting the animals you killed? I found it very moving.

 

[Xanatic*]

If they porpoise had been carved up, there would likely be knife marks on the bones near the joints.

 

[catseye]

If it had been buried for food - why in a graveyard?

I wonder if they found it on the shore, partially decomposed, and thought it was some kind of 'merperson', religion unknown, so they presumed it Christian and gave it a Christian burial.

 

[maximus otter]

If it had been buried for food - why in a graveyard?

Perhaps it was the only place in the area where the ground was soft enough to bury anything.

maximus otter

 

[catseye]

Perhaps it was the only place in the area where the ground was soft enough to bury anything.

maximus otter

On the beach above the tideline? Usually soft enough in sand.

 

[EnolaGaia]

The grave of an apparently important man from 1,400 years ago in Germany was found to contain a decapitated horse. Neither the horse's head nor an explanation for the horse corpse's burial has been found.

Mysterious Headless Horse Skeleton Found Buried in Medieval Graveyard

The skeletal remains of a man buried 1,400 years ago near a headless horse have been discovered at an ancient cemetery in the town of Knittlingen in southern Germany. He likely was the horse's owner/rider when he was alive.

The man was buried at a time when the Merovingian dynasty (476–750 CE) flourished in the area, ruling a giant swath of territory in what is now France and Central Europe.

During his lifetime, the man likely served the dynasty's kings. "He stood in a 'chain of command' with the Merovingian kings on its top, which meant he was obliged to participate in the king's campaigns," Folke Damminger, an archaeologist in charge of research at the site, told Live Science in an email. ...

Why exactly he was buried near a headless horse is not clear, but "most probably the decapitation [of the horse] was part of the burial ceremony," Damminger told Live Science. The horse may have been placed near its owner as a 'grave good' for the afterlife rather than a sacrifice, Damminger said. The horse's head has not been found so far. ...

The researchers will continue to investigate the headless horse burial and to excavate other burials at the cemetery. ...

FULL STORY (With Photos): https://www.sciencealert.com/mysterious-headless-horse-skeleton-found-buried-in-medieval-graveyard

 

[catseye]

The grave of an apparently important man from 1,400 years ago in Germany was found to contain a decapitated horse. Neither the horse's head nor an explanation for the horse corpse's burial has been found.

FULL STORY (With Photos): https://www.sciencealert.com/mysterious-headless-horse-skeleton-found-buried-in-medieval-graveyard

There's more 'possibly', 'it was likely that' and 'probably' in that article than I usually like in my scientific writing.