Ancient Alpine ritual site reveals sheep bones and carved gaming pieces from Iron Age ceremonies

High in the Austrian Alps, at Pfaffenhofen-Trappeleacker in the Upper Inn Valley about 22 kilometers west of Innsbruck, archaeologists have been piecing together the story of one of Tyrol’s most intriguing prehistoric sites. A new archaeozoological analysis of animal bones from the oldest occupation layer of this Iron Age and Roman-period burnt offering site, published in the Annals of the Natural History Museum Vienna, reveals that the earliest activity there was anything but ordinary settlement refuse. Instead, the bones point to deliberate ritual selection of animals and body parts, combined with an economy likely rooted in alpine pastoralism.

The site first yielded pottery sherds and bronze objects in 1886, but its interpretation as a burnt offering place dating to the Iron and Roman periods only emerged after excavations conducted between 1967 and 1969. Further rescue excavations followed in 1997–1998 and 2000–2003 ahead of planned construction, led by the Tyrolean heritage conservator Johannes Pöll. The animal remains examined in the new study come from those 1997 excavations and belong to Phase 1, the earliest horizon of the site, which began to be used in the second half of the sixth century BC according to previous research. This first phase is characterized by three solidly built hearths with stone substructures and stone edgings, a channel, a post setting, and a strikingly regular accumulation of bones interpreted as a bone depot, possibly a foundation or consecration offering.

In total, 13,584 animal remains were excavated from this horizon, but poor and heavily fragmented preservation meant that only 3,340 specimens, weighing roughly 1.8 kilograms, could be identified and analyzed in detail. Most of the identifiable bones are unburnt, and among the unidentifiable fragments, 88.3 percent show no fire exposure, while 10.6 percent are blackened and only 1.1 percent are calcined. The bones are light brown to yellow in color, with smooth, hard surfaces showing little weathering damage, though some are split lengthwise, likely from alternating freezing and drying conditions.

Sheep and goats dominate the assemblage by count. The small domestic ruminants account for 2,323 finds, nearly 70 percent of the identified material by fragment count and 74.8 percent by minimum number of individuals, though only 35.1 percent by weight. Cattle, represented by 874 finds or just over a quarter of the fragments, nevertheless dominate by weight at 61.3 percent, reflecting their much heavier bones and underlining their role as the principal meat suppliers. Pigs are marginal, with only 113 remains, while dog and horse appear in trace amounts. Among the wild animals, two talus bones of the ibex stand out, alongside remains of beaver, brown hare, red deer antler, and wild boar, one of whose humeri bears deep longitudinal chopping marks from defleshing.

Two features of the bone assemblage proved especially striking: the distribution of skeletal elements and the age profiles of the main species. Among the small ruminants, meat-poor body regions dominate overwhelmingly. The skull area, represented mainly by fragments of the maxilla, mandible, and loose teeth, makes up 70 percent of the finds, while vertebrae and ribs account for only 7.7 percent and the meat-rich regions between shoulder blade and ulna, and between pelvis and tibia, are scarce at 4.5 and 6.4 percent respectively. Notably, the talus bones, or astragali, are well represented at 5.2 percent even though other parts of the foot skeleton are barely present. Cattle show a more balanced distribution, but their skull region is still overrepresented at 38 percent, and horn cores are rare for both groups.

The talus bones themselves are among the most evocative finds. Seven of them bear crossed incised lines on their ventral articular surfaces, six show evidence of fire exposure ranging from black to white discoloration, and one specimen is both incised and burnt. Astragali have a long history of special uses across many cultures, from gaming pieces to ritual objects, and their deliberate treatment at Pfaffenhofen, together with the presence of ibex talons, raises questions about their symbolic significance at the site. The nearest modern ibex populations live only a few kilometers to the south, between the Mugkogel and Roßkogel.

The age profiles reinforce the impression of careful selection. Among the small ruminants, adults make up 91 percent of the tooth evidence, and animals older than seven years are the most common group at 62 percent. Crucially, the age classes between zero and twelve months, and between two and a half and three years, are entirely absent, even though these stages are typically well represented at sites where animals were actually kept. Females dominate at 70 percent, pointing toward dairy exploitation rather than wool production, since wool-focused husbandry would show a more balanced sex ratio. For cattle, adults account for 59.1 percent, and animals between one and two years reach a remarkable 27.3 percent, a selection of young cattle rarely documented in the Iron Age because it would have been economically costly given the importance of cattle for secondary products such as milk, traction, and manure.

Comparisons with other archaeological assemblages sharpen the picture. Ordinary settlement sites such as Pfatten in South Tyrol and Faggen in Tyrol show all body regions represented in roughly equal proportions, whereas Pfaffenhofen’s strong overrepresentation of meat-poor elements resembles the selective patterns known from burnt offering places, where skulls, metapodials, and phalanges were preferentially deposited. A comparison with the Late Bronze Age slaughter site of Prigglitz, where meat-poor regions also dominate, shows an important difference: at Prigglitz, a variety of meat-poor elements including vertebrae, ribs, phalanges, and metapodials are well represented, whereas Pfaffenhofen’s selection is far more targeted. The fragmentation of the bones, with most pieces cut or broken to lengths of roughly six to fifteen centimeters, suggests butchery adapted to the dimensions of cooking pots and serving vessels, but the absence of fine cut marks at joint margins indicates that limbs were severed above and below the joints rather than finely dissected.

On the economic side, the species composition fits the mountainous environment of the Upper Inn Valley, where keeping demanding cattle is difficult and hardy sheep thrive. The sheep stood only about 60 centimeters at the withers, matching a small breed widespread in the Rhaetian Fritzens-Sanzeno cultural area, and metrically resembling Late Iron Age sheep from Faggen. The cattle likewise belonged to a small, robust alpine population, plausibly ancestors of the Oberinntal Grey cattle that survives today in conservation herds. The strong emphasis on sheep, combined with parallels at South Tyrolean sites such as Tiers-Thalerbühel and Latsch, where similar faunal compositions were linked to alpine pasture economy, suggests that transhumant herding may have supplied the animals brought to the site.

The study’s conclusion is cautious but compelling. The bones from Pfaffenhofen’s oldest horizon cannot be classified as everyday slaughter refuse, because only specific age groups and skeletal elements were selected. A connection to ritual activity is considered very likely when the archaeological context of the site, with its hearths, bone depot, and later burnt offering phases, is taken into account, even though definitive proof remains elusive. The absence of good comparative material makes interpretation difficult, but the combination of selective butchery, curated astragali, skewed age profiles, and a mountain pastoral economy offers a vivid glimpse of ritual life in the pre-Roman Alps, where feasting, sacrifice, and perhaps games of chance played out against the backdrop of the Tyrolean mountains.

Subject of Research: Archaeozoological analysis of animal bones from the earliest horizon of an Iron Age burnt offering site at Pfaffenhofen-Trappeleacker in the Austrian Alps

Article Title: Die Tierknochenfunde aus dem ersten Begehungshorizont des latènezeitlichen Opferplatzes von Pfaffenhofen-Trappeleacker (Oberinntal, Tirol)

Article References: Die Tierknochenfunde aus dem ersten Begehungshorizont des latènezeitlichen Opferplatzes von Pfaffenhofen-Trappeleacker (Oberinntal, Tirol). (n.d.). https://doi.org/10.3897/anhmw.178040

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.3897/anhmw.178040

Keywords: archaeozoology, Iron Age, burnt offering site, Pfaffenhofen-Trappeleacker, Tyrol, Alps, sheep, cattle, astragali, ritual, alpine pastoralism, Fritzens-Sanzeno culture