In Sheep’s Clothing?

This study investigates the potentially generative roles of animals in the cremation ritual through an in-depth study of an excavated Late Iron Age (c. 400-1050 BCE) grave-field in North Spånga, Sweden. The animal remains in this burial ground are generally of two categories: one comprises parts from several body regions, and one entails mainly fragments of the skull and lower extremities. Although there are general distinctions between animals of the first category (dogs, horses and cats) and of the second category (sheep/goat, pigs, fowl), they are not exclusive and do not reflect a dualist view of companions versus beasts of burden or food. Moreover, the latter category is here interpreted as the remains of skinned animals with head, toe and ankle bones still attached. As such, depending on how they were arranged on the pyre, they may have worked to deflect malevolent forces during the transformative part of the cremation. The collection and deposition of the cremated bones of both animals and humans, sometimes with additional unburned bone, suggests that they were considered as generative materialities in the grave, conceivably to shelter or aid the dead post-cremation.