Walvisbotten uit Friese en Groninger terpen

Samenvatting

Whale bones from Frisian and Groningen terpen. Whale bones are regularly found in terp excavations in the provinces of Friesland and Groningen. A.E. van Giffen (1913) already identified teeth of sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus) and bones of killer whale (Orcinus orca). New identifications of whale bones from terpen have demonstrated five further species: right whale (Eubalaena glacialis), humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae), longfinned pilot whale (Globicephala melas), bottlenose whale (Hyperoodon ampullatus) and harbour porpoise (Phocoena phocoena). Parts of stranded individuals of the large whale species would have been brought to the terpen for food or fat, to be used as chopping-blocks or to be made into bone tools. It is thought that the harbour porpoise was infrequently hunted or accidentally captured in fishing nets. Apart from the right whale, present-day strandings of the identified species are still reported along the Dutch North Sea coast.