Natural History and Exploitation of the Harbor Porpoise ( Phocoena phocoena Linnaeus, 1758) during the Neolithic (ca. 4000–2000 cal. BC) in the Eastern Baltic Region

Compared with the history of seals in the Baltic Sea, the porpoise has received much less research attention. The harbor porpoise ( Phocoena phocoena ) has been quite rare in the eastern Baltic in recent centuries, but according to archaeological finds, its population was quite numerous here ca. 600...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Animals
Main Authors: Lembi Lõugas, Valdis Bērziņš
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2023
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.3390/ani13050909
https://doaj.org/article/1331b9be0acb4f76bb5869771c839e7e
Description
Summary:Compared with the history of seals in the Baltic Sea, the porpoise has received much less research attention. The harbor porpoise ( Phocoena phocoena ) has been quite rare in the eastern Baltic in recent centuries, but according to archaeological finds, its population was quite numerous here ca. 6000–4000 years ago (ca. 4000–2000 cal. BC). This paper deals with all known archaeological assemblages of porpoise so far discovered in the eastern Baltic (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania), discusses the hunting strategies and studies the exploitation of this small cetacean by the Neolithic hunter-gatherers. Fauna historical aspects include new archaeological data in addition to those published previously. We consider whether these new data change the temporal and spatial pattern of porpoise hunting and examine how, in addition to the expected use of porpoise meat and blubber, the porpoise’s toothed mandibles were used for patterning ceramics.