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oai:figshare.com:article/34031970 2026-10-01T08:23:03Z portal_403 item_type_8 month_year_10_2026

Worlds entwined Exploring the lived experiences of sheep, horses and dogs in later Iron Age Scandinavia through the lens of archaeoethology Renate Larssen (25143641) Human-Animal Relationships thesis Zooarchaeology Iron Age Scandinavia Archaeoethology Animal Agency Sheep, Horses and Dogs Scandinavian Archaeology <p dir="ltr">Despite being a common feature at archaeological sites, animal remains have traditionally been given little weight in our understanding of past societies beyond their role as quantitative and qualitative data for human preferences. Categorising animals based on what humans may have done to them centres humans as the sole agents of history and reduces animals to proxies for dietary preferences, socioeconomic activities, ritual customs, and representations of belief systems. However, a growing body of theory and evidence suggests that animal-human relationships in the past were nuanced and complex, and that animals played an active role in shaping human societies. This thesis explores that nuance and complexity in the context of later Iron Age Scandinavia (c. 400-1100 CE) by utilising a post-anthropocentric and multidisciplinary approach, combining zooarchaeological methods, archaeological theory, and ethological research to centre animal experiences in the narrative.<br>A novel theoretical framework called ‘archaeoethology’ is developed and applied to two related datasets to explore the lived experiences of sheep, horses and dogs: a large-scale quantitative analysis of faunal remains from selected late Iron Age sites in Sweden and Denmark and a higher-resolution qualitative analysis of five case studies. The results suggest that individual sheep, horses and dogs could have vastly different life trajectories</p><p dir="ltr">that intersected along species, breed, age, gender and place boundaries. Archaeological material such as animal bones, material culture, buildings, and landscape features provides clues to the lived experiences of animals in the past that can be accessed using the archaeoethology framework, leading to new insights into animal-human relationships and therefore a more nuanced understanding of the forces that shaped the past. The results highlight the diversity of animal lives and animal-human interactions in late Iron Age Scandinavia and demonstrate how a multi-scalar analysis from the perspectives of the animals can disrupt established ideas about animal-human relationships. </p> 2026-10-01T08:23:03Z Text Thesis 10.25392/leicester.data.34031970.v1 https://figshare.com/articles/thesis/Worlds_entwined_Exploring_the_lived_experiences_of_sheep_horses_and_dogs_in_later_Iron_Age_Scandinavia_through_the_lens_of_archaeoethology/34031970 All Rights Reserved Open Access after 2027-08-24