Dear Eva,
I identified a pine marten (Martes martes) skull with fine transverse knife
marks across its maxilla as an example of skinning from a late 1st Century
AD deposit in a Roman military fort at Annetwell Street, Carlisle. The
period is c AD 72/73 - AD 150. I took care to make sure that the
identification to species was accurate as the Roman military machine could
have imported continental martens/skins (eg beech marten Martes foina). The
skull was recovered from a bulk sieved sample of sediment from a stone
surface outside of any buildings but within the fort (I thought this was an
unusual place to get skinning debris) and there were no other examples of
wild (or domestic) fur resource exploitation from the site at this period.
There were probably suitable habitats for pine marten within 10 - 15 km of
the site, so it could have been caught locally. The site is still
unpublished, but there is a report in 'grey' literature that includes two
black and white photographs:

Stallibrass, S. 1991. Animal bones from excavations at Annetwell Street,
Carlisle, 1982-4. period 3: the earlier timber fort. London: English
Heritage. Ancient Monuments Laboratory Reports 132/91.

Copies (of all AML and Centre for Archaeology reports)should be available
from English Heritage, Centre for Archaeology, Fort Cumberland, Eastney,
Portsmouth PO4 9LD Telephone 023 9285 6700.
The report is very long,  however, and I can xerox the relevant pages if
this would be useful.

The hand recovered material included 2 cat bones (neither cut) and 18 dog
bones/fragments, one of which (a fibula) has some cutmarks across the
distal articulation. N.B. there are some butchered horse bones as well that
appear to relate to hide removal.

This is just one report, memorable to me for the pine marten skull. I (and
many others) have many unpublished reports of material from excavations and
evaluation trenches. The material from evaluations, in particular, is
unlikely ever to see publication in journals. It would take me some time to
check through them all. Are you really planning to trawl through all
reports for your long list of species for all periods, or are you doing a
preliminary scoping search before narrowing down your target species/time
period/geographical area?

best wishes,
Sue

--On 17 June 2003 09:29 +0100 Eva Fairnell <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>
> Dear list members
>
> For my thesis, I am gathering data on fur-bearing animals within the UK.
> I am interested in what species we have been skinning, processing or
> perhaps importing and using for fur, and when and where this has taken
> place. My target species include dog, cat, wolf, fox, badger, mustelids,
> hare, rabbit, squirrel, seal, bear.
> I am in the process of systematically searching various journals for any
> bone reports that include fur-bearing species. I am recording presence of
> relevant native and non-native species, and any data on the elements and
> knife marks found.
> I would be very grateful and  interested to hear about any data list
> members know about, published or unpublished, regarding sites and species
> where there seems to be evidence of processing and/or the use of fur, at
> whatever scale and at any time period. If anyone can think of any less
> obvious species I may have overlooked, please also let me know.
> Many thanks
>
> Eva
>
> Eva Fairnell
> MSc in Zooarchaeology student at the University of York
> [log in to unmask]



Dr. Sue Stallibrass
English Heritage Archaeological Science Adviser for North-West England
Department of Archaeology
Hartley Building
University of Liverpool
LIVERPOOL L69 3GS

direct telephone: +44 (0)151 794 5046    departmental FAX: +44 (0)151 794
5057

e-mail: [log in to unmask]