Perwick Cave Great Auk Bone
Date made: Middle Iron Age
Description: This small bone is from the now-extinct bird, the Great Auk and was found during excavations of an Iron Age site at Perwick Cave, near Port St Mary. Flightless Great Auks became extinct in the mid-1800s due to the high demand for their down and the relative ease of hunting them.
The excavations at Perwick Cave in 1969 uncovered the remains of a habitation site dating to around AD 70. There were traces of cooked food and cooking fires, along with bones of fifteen species of bird (including the Great Auk), shellfish, a seal, a pony and a human burial.
The reasons for the remains being in the cave are unclear. If the site was purely a domestic place, then the Iron Age people could have just thrown their rubbish into the nearby sea rather than let it accumulate in the cave. There is a possibility that the deposits at Perwick are the result of ritual activity instead. Whatever the reason, the remains are proof that the Great Auk once occupied the Manx coastline.
Materials: Bone
Date found: 1969
Object name: animal remains
Collection: Archaeology Collection
ID number: 1982-0211
Comments
Linked Records
Places:
Sites: