Hi, was just wondering if anyone could come up with any ideas as to the collection of horse teeth I have analysed from a Roman site. A small collection of 8 horse maxillary molars/premolars, in excellent condition were found in a roman ditch, which appears to be part of a roman domestic site. The pottery in the same ditch suggests domestic waste, and I find it strange that all that was found was this small group of horse teeth. I can assume that if the soil conditions were too bad for bone preservation that the teeth would be in a poor state, but they look 'brand new'! I assume that with no other bone in the ditch at all, the teeth must have been placed there, but where from? they may be from the same animal, but they would still have to have been moved to the ditch after removal from the maxilla, because of the lack of bone fragments (unless a horse walked past and all his teeth fell out whilst standing over the ditch!
Has anyone else come across a collection of teeth like this? I know it is only a small number, but I just thought it was a bit unusual.
Thanks in advance,
Emma-Jayne
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Emma-Jayne Evans, Oxford Archaeology
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