A bulla tympanica of a grey whale (Eschrichtius robustus) from Wijster (Dr.).
The animal remains from the native Roman-period village at Wijster (province of Drenthe) were published by Dr Anneke T. Clason in 1967. Most of the remains are poorly preserved cattle and horse bone fragments. About half of them come from animal graves in farmyards or along village roads, which most probably are ritual deposits. At the beginning of 2018, Ernst Taayke found among the material from a grave of a horse and a cow, animal grave 12, an unidentified bone, find number 1266, that he did not recognize. The bone was found to be a bulla tympanica of a grey whale (Eschrichtius robustus), a very rare find. Animal grave 12 was a ritual deposit in the yard of farmhouse 77, dated 3rd/4th century AD. In this paper we discuss how we established the whale species, the possible origin of the whale bone and the meaning of the whale bone in this ritual deposit of a horse and a cow.
