Dear Jane,
I am NOT suggesting that your "panther" is medieval, but given the
element you should check out all possibilities. It certainly sounds like
a goodie.
I found a well (preserved) intermaxilla (os incisivus) fragment in an
AD 14-15th c. deposit in SW Hungary, that I even erroeneously
published as bear, but it turned out to have been a large panther
(the revised evaluation is soon to be published in the Festschrift for
Anneke Clason). My only excuse is that this is a zoogeographically
very unlikely find: even at that time, the closest panthers to Hungary
lived somewhere around the Caucasus (cf. Topsell), relevant
Pleistocene layers are buried under several dozen meters of natural
deposit.
However, toothed parts can travel very far either as trophies or parts
of skin deco. Differential preservation may also be related to
differential treatment (e.g. non-food refuse= more exposed in a
demolished building).
Could you arrange for an AMS date? Even if it turns out to be a
Pleistocene specimen, it should be of tremendous interest!
Good luck: Laszlo
(Bartosiewicz)
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
|