Dear Stephanie,
In collaboration with vets, Prof Leo Jeffcott and Katherine Whitwell,
FRCVS, I am working on the development of a methodology for recording
pathologies/abnormalities related to the use of the horse for riding and
traction. Many of the questions are problem specific and I think that you
would find the same for many other species. On the other hand, it should be
possible to learn a lot from work done by other people. My work is still in
progress, so not ready to be exposed to the wide world, but I hope that
eventually other researchers will find it of use. As for the definition of
pathology. That is, indeed, tricky because sometimes little research has
been done on what is 'normal'. There is also the question of clinically
pathological or just abnormal.
These are all serious questions and each researcher must decide where their
interests lie and where their level of expertise will take them.
good luck with your research,
Marsha Levine
On Oct 4 2004, Stephanie Vann wrote:
> Dear Zooarch, I am a PhD student at the University of Leicester whose
> topic is 'Towards a methodology for the analysis of animal
> palaeopathological data from archaeological sites'. I plan to examine the
> current situation with research in this area and see how it could be
> improved and whether a generic methodology that could be used by all
> workers could be devised for recording examples of pathology in animal
> bone assemblages. As part of this I am attempting to gain the views of
> those whose who work in this area, not just pathology specialists and
> researchers, but also the faunal specialists and consultants who work in
> the field of developer-funded archaeology. I would be greatly
> appreciative if the readers of this list could find the time to check out
> the discussion at
> http://pub3.bravenet.com/forum/show.php?usernum=196682048 ,which is the
> discussion board for the Animal Palaeopathology Working Group (part of
> ICAZ), on the subjects of 'what is a pathology' and 'recording
> methodologies'. For those interested in this subject the address of their
> web site is http://www.apwg.supanet.com/Thank you very much Stephanie
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--
Dr. Marsha Levine, McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research
University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3ER, England
phone: +44 (0)1223-339347 / fax: +44 (0)1223-339285
http://www.arch.cam.ac.uk/ml12/project/
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