Recent studies of preserved wool textiles dated to the Danish Viking age (c. AD 800-1050) have shown that wool quality underwent a significant change during this period. This is expressed through a general coarsening of the wool fibres used for the production of textiles. This change contrasts the use of finer fibres in previous periods of the Danish prehistory. The reason for this change is not fully understood. However, it could be related to the introduction of new breeds of sheep into the current Danish area; changes in sheep husbandry practices or changes in wool selection or processing. My research investigates the first and second proposals. 

To cast light on these questions it is obviously necessary to study archaeological sheep remains from the Viking Age. However, the identification and separation of ovicaprine remains, i.e. sheep and goats have, for many decades been a major obstacle in zooarchaeology. Various methodologies based on skeletal or dental morphology have been suggested, but unambiguous species identifications of ovicaprines - especially fragmented or juvenile specimens - remain a challenge.  However, peptide mass fingerprinting approaches, such as ZooMS, have proven a valuable tool for providing species identifications of ovicaprines.

By applying ZooMS and ancient DNA-analyses, the aim of Shearing Through Time, is to provide new and (in a Danish context) unprecedented insights into how Late Iron Age and Viking Age sheep were managed, bred and subsequently exploited for wool production. These analyses will then provide a better understanding of how wool production interplayed with the overall textile economy of the period.