Dear All
The Bigelow reference tells the N Atlantic story as we know it- the
dual perforation (which looks drilled but actually can be done by
twisting a knife point too) seems to appear in Iceland (more or less)
post AD 1200, and as George Hambrecht points out this takes over as a
marrow extraction technique by early modern times. Today there is even a
little rhyme in Icelandic about dual perforation as a means of magically
averting the fracture of a live sheep's leg at this point. Before this
they are splitting metapodials lengthwise to get the marrow out (magic
seems to have come in later too). It gets to Shetland, Faroes (as Simun
indicates), and Iceland by later middle ages, and it sounds like arctic
Norway too.
Interestingly the Norse Greenlanders NEVER make the transition and go
on splitting caprine metapodials down to their extinction ca 1450. So
this does not seem to be a Viking Age tradition (at least in the N
Atlantic) but comes in later. If anyone has ideas about the source,
route, or dating of this rather neat method of marrow extraction (which
also leaves a usefully shaped bone intact for craft use)we would be very
interested. Great thread everyone!
Best
Tom
Thomas H McGovern
Professor,
Dept of Anthropology Hunter College CUNY
Archaeology Coordinator,
CUNY Doctoral Program in Anthropology
Coordinator, North Atlantic Biocultural Organization
Address:
Anthropology Dept.
Hunter College
695 Park Ave. NYC 10021 USA
tel. 212 772 5410 fax. 212 772 5423
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-----Original Message-----
From: Analysis of animal remains from archaeological sites
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Rene Kysely
Sent: Friday, December 03, 2004 9:54 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [ZOOARCH] drilled metapodials
Dear Peter,
this reference can help you:
Bigelow, G.F., 1989: Archeological and ethnohistoric evidence a norse
island food custom. pp. 441 - 453. In: Colleen et al.. (eds.), 1989:
The
Viking age in Caithness, Orkney and the north Atlantic. Edinburgh
University Press.
Rene
-----
Rene Kysely
Institute of Archaeology of Academy of the Sciences of the Czech
Republic.
Letenska 4
118 01, Prague
Czech Republic
tel.: + 420 - 257014302
[log in to unmask]
www.arup.cas.cz
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