[Bonetools] Worked Dog and Fox Bone?

[griffitt at email.arizona.edu]

(please ignore this if it's a duplicate.  I tried to send it earlier and my
computer crashed and I don't know if it did or did not go out)

Hi Tina

Unfortunately, most of my vast and disorganized stash of xeroxed articles is
still boxed up.  I moved back in January, but still haven't gotten everything
back into the file cabinets!  So, these are just general impressions 
from what I
can find on my shelves right now.  Most of these are the books that are 
easiest
to find in my messy office.

My impression is that canids and other carnivore bones are used in low levels
for utilitarian and ornamental artifacts in most of the time periods and
regions where I?ve worked.

Up on the Northern Plains the vast majority of bone artifacts are made from
bison bone, but there are still some canid bone bits.  Utilitarian and
non-utilitarian artifacts made from unidentified  canid, Canis sp., and Vulpes
bone were found at Scattered Village (North Dakota) (Ahler and Falk 2004), and
at On-A-Slant Village (also North Dakota) (Ahler and Ryser 1997), and Vulpes
and canid at Taylor Bluff Village (Snyder 1988).

In the Southwest:
Gooding (1980) found multiple beads made from canid bone, as well as bead
manufacturing debris.  He also has a canid tibia that was made into 
both an awl
and a tinkler (an ornamental bone object with a rectangular notch, 
assumed to be
strung on strings with other objects that would jangle against one 
another).  He
also lists a canid bone drill, and utilized canid fibula.
Artifacts made from fox, dog, coyote, wolf, and unidentified canine, and
unidentified carnivore were found at Gran Quivira (New Mexico) (Hayes et al.
1981), and Badger House (Colorado) (Hayes and Lancaster 1975).

Canid teeth and jaws are drilled and used as ornaments.  For example, there?s
a swift fox mandible pendant from the Biesterfeldt site (Wood 1971:38) 
in South
Dakota., and a drilled unidentied canid mandible from a Baskemaker Cave in the
Northern Southwest (Morris 1980:85).  Many North American artifacts are
reported only as canid because it?s so hard to tell dogs and coyotes apart,
and unfortunately, as I'm sure you've already found, many reports provide such
limited information on modified bone that you can't tell what species a bone
came from.

These are just general impressions, I?m sure that there are many people on
this list serve who know the literature much better than I do, but this might
provide a place to start.

talk to you later
Janet

A few references from the uppermost strata on my desk and shelves:

Ahler, Stanley A. and Carl R. Falk
2004  Modified Bone and Antler Remains.   Prehistory on First Street NE:  The
Archaeology of Scattered Village in Mandan, North Dakota.  Available online
http://www.state.nd.us/dot/manuals/scatteredvillage/scatteredvillage.html.

Ahler, Stanley A. and Gail Ryser
1997 Modified Bone and Antler.  Archaeology of the Mandan Indians at 
On-A-Slant
Village (32MO26), Fort Abraham Lincoln State Park, Morton County, North 
Dakota.
  edited by Stanley A. Ahler, pp. 351-390.  North Dakota Parks and Recreation
Department, Bismark, North Dakota.

Gooding, John D.
1980 The Durango South Project:  Archaeological Salvage of Two late 
Basketmaker
III Sites in the Durango District.  Anthropolgoical Papers of the 
University of
Arizona No. 34.  University of Arizona Press, Tucson.

Hayes, Alden C., Jon Nathan Young, and A.H.Warren
1981  Excavation of Mound 7 Gran Wuivira National Monument, New Mexico.
Publications in Archeology 16, National Park Service, US Department of the
Interior Washington DC

Hayes, Alden and James A. Lancaster
1975  Badger House Community, Mesa Verde National Park.  National Park 
Service,
US Department of the Interior, Washington.

Morris, Elizabeth Ann
1980  Basketmaker Caves in the Prayer Rock district, Northeastern Arizona.
Anthropological Papers of the University of Arizona No. 35.  University of
Arizona Press, Tucson.

(Earl Morris probably has some good stuff, too, but I can?t find my xeroxes)

Snyder, Lynn M.
1988  Analysis of Modified and Unmodified Vertebrate remains.  Archeological
Mitigation at Taylor Bluff Village (32ME366), Knife River Indian Villages
National Historical Site.  edited by Stanley A. Ahler.  Midwest Archaeological
Center, US National Park Service.

Wood, W. Raymond
1971  Biesterfeldt:  A Post-Contact Coalescent Site on the Northeastern 
Plains.
Smithsonian Contribution to Anthropology No. 15, Washington DC.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Janet Griffitts
Visiting Scholar
Dept. of Anthropology
Tucson, Arizona

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++











Quoting tfulton at sricrm.com:

> Hi everyone,
> I hope your conference plans are going smoothly...
>
> I have a question.  Does anyone know of any instances in which dog or fox
> bone were used to make an artifact?  I have not observed ANY modified dog
> or fox bone where I am (southern California).  If dog bone was not used to
> make  objects or tools elsewhere, then this could be significant.
>
> If you know of any sources on this subject, please let me know.
>
>
>
>
> Tina Fulton
> MA Candidate
> Graduate Student
> Department of Anthropology
> California State University,
> Los Angeles
> *********************************************
> Statistical Research Inc.
> Assistant Faunal Analyst
> Worked Bone Analyst
> Archaeological Crew Chief
> Field Survey and Excavation
> Lab Technician
> tfulton at sricrm.com
> *********************************************
> Phone: 909-522-6366
> TinaMarieFulton at gmail.com
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Bonetools mailing list
> Bonetools at listserv.iif.hu
> http://listserv.niif.hu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/bonetools











+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Janet Griffitts
Visiting Scholar
Dept. of Anthropology
Tucson, Arizona

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++