Mesolithic hunting in Denmark illustrated by bone injuries caused by human weapons

Animal skeletons from eight Danish Mesolithic settlements and 14 isolated bog finds have been investigated for injuries caused by hunters. The injuries comprise arrow-pierced limb bones, ribs and vertebrae together with healed and unhealed injuries found on shoulder blades. Special attention has been drawn to the skull lesions on Sus scrofa L. Some pathological features in the shoulder blades of the same animal are also discussed for comparison. The sizes and shapes of the injuries in some cases give an indication of the types of weapons that have been used. The proportion of unhealed to healed fractures seems to change during time. This feature may be related to the change to an increasingly stationary mode of life of the hunters.