BEAR-CLAWS IN GERMANIC GRAVES

Summary. The remains of bear-skins for cremation burials of the late pre-Roman and early Roman Iron Age are a long neglected 'grave-good'. This is because of their scattered occurrence in graves on the continent in Sweden, north Germany, Bohemia and in the Celto-Germanic 'contact-zone' as far west as England. Their distribution and connection with many high-status graves marks them as Germanic'prestige goods'. This raises the question of ethnicity in these graves.