Ein spätbronzezeitlicher Tierknochenfundkomplex aus der Kupferbergbausiedlung Brixlegg-Mariahilfbergl (Tirol)

Late Bronze Age (Urnenfelderzeit) faunal remains from Brixlegg (Tyrol, Austria) are analysed in this paper. The characteristics of the assemblage (faunal composition, age-at-death, relative abundance of different bones) reflect the peculiar economy of a mining settlement. Animal husbandry was only partly carried out at the site itself. The great amount of pig remains, the lack of young individuals and the paucity of metapodials, phalanges, skulls and mandible remains, can be interpreted as a result of the import of carcasses for the meat supply from places outside the settlement. Hunting was of scarce economic relevance. In this period the cattle population shows a considerably smaller body size than that of the Early and Middle Bronze Age from Brixlegg and other earlier sites in the region. Thus it resembled closely the cattle of the following Iron Age. The outstandingly tall Early Bronze Age dog breed from Brixlegg is still present during the Late Bronze Age.