ORIGINAL PAPER Birds in burials: the role of avifauna in Eneolithic Tripolye mortuary rituals Sarah Heins Ledogar 1,2,3 & Jordan K. Karsten 4 & Mykhailo Sokhastskyi 5 Received: 10 February 2017 /Accepted: 14 November 2017 # Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2017 Abstract Bird remains are rare at Tripolye sites; therefore, researchers hypothesize that they were not an important economic resource for the Tripolye. The use of ornithographic iconography, vessels, and figurines suggests avifauna were important symbolically in Tripolye ideology. Here, we investigate the role of birds in a Tripolye burial context to assess their symbolic and/or economic significance in mortuary behaviours. We analysed bird remains from the Verteba Cave cemetery, located in western Ukraine and occupied by the Tripolye during phase BII through CII. Bird remains (n = 178) comprise approximately 2% of the faunal sample excavated among human burials from the cave. In contrast to species represented symbolically in Tripolye art, water and marsh birds are majorly underrepresented. The bird assemblage is dominated by grouse (Tetrao spp.), and common quail (Cortunix cortunix), but also includes birds of prey, corvids, and many songbirds. The large number of gamebirds leads us to conclude that the avifauna from Verteba Cave are likely the remains from funeral feasts or food grave offerings. It also supports the idea that birds were a seasonal and local economic resource. The presence of birds of prey, corvids, and male black grouse also suggests that feathers may have been a desired resource. Keywords Birds . Symbolism . Economy . Grouse . Tripolye culture . Eneolithic Introduction The role of birds in the Tripolye culture has been the subject of recent discussions (Bejenaru and Monah 2014; Kovalchuk and Gorobets 2015), along with a growing interest in under- standing fowling in prehistoric times. The Tripolye were an agropastoral cultural population from the Eneolithic (ca. 5100–2900 cal BC) Eurasian forest-steppe of Ukraine (Rassamakin and Menotti 2011). They are considered part of a larger cultural complex known as the Tripolye-Cucuteni culture that stretched across the modern territories of Ukraine, Romania, and Moldova. Archaeological evidence indicates the Tripolye cared for and relied on resources from livestock and domestic dogs, but still hunted, trapped, and fished a variety of wild resources (Markova 2008; Zhuralev 2008). Few bird remains have been found in Tripolye faunal assemblages from all periods, and as a result, little is known about how they were used. Bird remains from Romanian Cucuteni settlements Poduri-Dealul Ghindaru, Hoiseşti, and Feteşti-La Schit comprise less than 1% of the total fauna sample (Cavaleriu and Bejenaru 2009; Oleniuc 2010). Reports from Ukrainian Tripolye settlements describe fewer than 100 bird bones at five settlements—Chapaivka, Dereivka, Jevmynka, Sandraky, and Gorods’k (Kovalchuk and Gorobets 2015). Low frequencies of birds at archaeological sites has led researchers to suggest that birds were not an important eco- nomic resource (Bejenaru and Monah 2014; Haimovici 1987; Kovalchuk and Gorobets 2015). Despite their limited eco- nomic use, researchers hypothesize that birds and their feathers were important symbolically to the Tripolye and were an integral component to their religion and mythology (Bejenaru and Monah 2014; Kovalchuk and Gorobets 2015). Kovalchuk and Gorobets (2015) note an atypically high number of birds of prey species, such as eagles and owls, which they suggest might indicate a symbolic importance of these bird types. In their analysis of bird representations in Tripolye art, Bejenaru and Monah (2014) * Sarah Heins Ledogar sarah.h.ledogar@gmail.com 1 Department of Anthropology, University at Albany – SUNY, Albany, NY, USA 2 Department of Biology, New York State Museum, Albany, NY, USA 3 Department of Archaeology and Palaeoanthropology, University of New England, Armidale, NSW, Australia 4 Department of Religious Studies and Anthropology, University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, Oshkosh, WI, USA 5 Borschiv Regional Museum of Local Lore, Borschiv, Ternopil O’blast, Ukraine Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-017-0567-5