Between Bones and Beliefs

Human-Bird Relations in Central and Northern Europe in the First Millennium AD

Karpinska, Klaudia (ed.)
Smallman, Riley (ed.)
Oehrl, Sigmund (ed.)

Human-avian relationships developed in many ways throughout the Iron Age, particularly in the first millennium AD in Central and Northern Europe. These airborne animals foraged and scavenged close to settlements, inviting interactions — wild birds were hunted, and domesticated poultry were bred for meat, feathers, and eggs; other birds were kept for entertainment or sport, with raptors trained for falconry, and the importance of birds is noted in texts ranging from Pliny the Elder to Old Norse poetry. This volume offers new insights into the extraordinary role played by birds in the past, from their roles in the pre-Christian beliefs and rituals of Iron Age societies to their appearance in early Christian iconographies, and from the discovery of their remains in everyday and ritual contexts to the styles employed by artists on jewellery and weapons. The result is a unique insight into the important relationship between birds and humans in the cultures of Central and Northern Europe in the first millennium AD.