Posted on 08/09/2022 7:36:57 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
Beaver fur was a symbol of wealth and an important trade item in 10th Century Denmark, according to a study published July 27, 2022 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE...
Written sources indicate that fur was a key commodity during the Viking Age, between 800-1050 CE, but fur doesn't often survive well in the archaeological record, so little direct evidence is available. Previous reports have used the microscopic anatomy of ancient fur to identify species of origin, but this method is often inexact. All in all, not much is known about the kinds of furs the Vikings preferred.
In this study, Brandt and colleagues analyzed animal remains from six high-status graves from 10th Century Denmark. While no ancient DNA was recovered from the samples, perhaps due to treatment processes performed on furs and skins and probably due to preservation conditions, identifiable proteins were recovered by two different analytical techniques. Grave furnishings and accessories included skins from domestic animals, while clothing exhibited furs from wild animals, specifically a weasel, a squirrel, and beavers.
These findings support the idea that fur was a symbol of wealth during the Viking Age. The fact that beavers are not native to Denmark suggests this fur was a luxury item acquired through trade. Some clothing items included fur from multiple species, demonstrating a knowledge of the varying functions of different animal hides, and may have indicated a desire to show off exclusive furs. The authors note the biggest limiting factor in this sort of study is the incompleteness of comparative protein databases; as these databases expand, more specific identifications of ancient animal skins and furs will be possible...
(Excerpt) Read more at sciencedaily.com ...
So I know more about Beavers but Rat Hats was a
Dead End !
.
I have an Urban Sombrero,
Some where here.
/$
But yeah. :^)
Beavers (and Vikings) are also native to northern Eurasia, so they may have just trapped ‘em themselves, or traded with neighbors.
... or ...
(If you look closely you may see goosebumps)
I saw some video of guys over in Iraq, big bad Marines all set up in their combat gear and armed to the teeth clowning around in some Iraqi barnyard with a ram, one guy getting on his hands and knees to go head to head with it while the guys looking on laughed like kids.
Thank God some really never get the boy out of them. Probably what keeps people in some of those situations sane...
Ward, you were awfully hard on The Beaver last night....................
Slaughtered?
The Indians sold the beaver pelts to the French and British traders
“Ward, there’s something wrong with the Beaver”. Ya gotta think that the producers and writers of that show were having fun the whole time.
Maybe that word was not a euphemism back then.....................
Tail, beaver... nah, that’s been around a loooooong time.
And that was in 1927, so, probably was in common use (among adults) well before that. :^)
Seems odd that it would be British slang.............................
Yes that’s right. They sold the pelts but fought over hunting grounds.
One of the theories of European entry to African trade and subsequent colonization was over access to ivory, which was previously acquired through Iceland/Greenland walrus hunting, but which ran out as those settlements were abandoned due to overhunting and climate cooling that forced them out of Greenland.
Other reasons include, improvement in both ships and naval armament, and the 11th c (Seljuk) Turkish invasion of the Middle East and Byzantine Empire. The (largely mythical) era of a united muzzie empire disintegrated.
The rise of the Ottoman Empire in the 15th c led to the fall of Constantinople in 1453 put the cap into what was left of the flow of trade from the East into Europe via the B.E.
The bubonic plague had (re-)emerged among European populations in the 14th c, and with the rather sudden cooling known as the Little Ice Age during that same century, the old feudal order fell apart, leading to a need for a regularized legal system (increasing the value of literacy), and paid labor / free enterprise.
Everything that exists came into being because of the way things unfolded in the past.
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