modified boes

[alice]

Dear Colleagues,
        I read this letter circulated on an archaeozoology mailing list and
thought it might be of interest to members of our list.

Alice

From:                   Julie Curl <julie.curl.mus at norfolk.gov.uk>
Subject:                unusually worked bones
To:                     zooarch at mailbase.ac.uk
Send reply to:          julie.curl.mus at norfolk.gov.uk
Priority:               normal


I have a query about a group of modified bones from an excavation
in
Norwich, Norfolk. There is one group of 37 bones and a further
collection of 9 bones from another context, all with the same
modification. All of the bones have been trimmed - in most cases at
both the proximal and distal ends of the bone. All of the bones are
from 17th century contexts.

The trimming is similar to the modifications carried out to produce a
skate, however, none have been further worked to produce a near
finished skate. It is also most unlikely that they are waste from
skate production as they are all at the same stage of working -
various stages of unfinished skates would normally be expected,
they
are also of a much later date than most skates. The working is
hard to explain in terms of butchering. Although in some cases the
marrow cavity has been exposed, butchering for this purpose is
excessive and much of it quite unnecessary.

If anyone has any ideas about these bones or knows of any
parallels they can contact me at: julie.curl.mus at norfolk.gov.uk
Pictures and further text can be found at:
http://www.bham.ac.uk/bzl/zooarch