Multidisciplinary History of Goats in Finland: A Comparative Approach

Abstract

<p>This article aims to study the history of goats (Capra hircus) in Finland using a multisource<br>approach combining zooarchaeological data with evidence from written sources, the Silver Tax<br>Record of 1571, and statistical data from the year 1900. We present an overview of an abundance of<br>goat bones in zooarchaeological sites dating from the Middle Iron Age to the Post-Medieval period.<br>Furthermore, we use Zooarchaeology by Mass Spectrometry (ZooMS) to study the presence of goats<br>in material where it has not been identified by morphological methods. Where the zooarchaeological<br>material and written sources overlap, the results support each other. The meaning of goats in the<br>animal husbandry system in Finland has varied temporally and spatially, and their numbers were<br>in decline by the year 1900. Their diminishing role in 20th-century Finland and their reputation of<br>being the ‘poor man’s cow’ is likely the reason why they have not attracted much research interest.<br>However, according to our data, goats have been an integral part of the animal husbandry system<br>at least from the Late Iron Age onward, even if their proportion among other livestock is never<br>very high.<br></p>