Dear all,
I have two cattle mandibles from a Syrian site, Tell Tweini, with
abnormally worn teeth. The first example has a heavily worn posterior cusp
of the P4 and anterior cusp of the M1. The second mandible does not have
the part with premolars preserved, but the anterior cusp of the M1 is again
heavily worn. No date is available for the latter, but the former dates to
c. 950-550 BC (Iron Age).
I found one resembling case in the literature that was interpreted as
possible bit wear (Serjeantson et al., 1993). However, looking at examples
of bit wear in horses, this seems unlikely to me (Anthony and Brown,
1991). In the zooarch archives I found a discussion on abnormal wear on a
mandibular M3. The suggested explanations were missing or damaged opposing
teeth in the maxilla. If this is also what happened at the site I studied,
why then twice on the same teeth? Do any of you have ideas or suggestions?
Pictures of the mandibles can be provided.
(Anthony, D.W., Brown, D.R. (1991). The origins of horseback riding.
Antiquity 65, 22-38.
Serjeantson, D., Waldron, T., Bracegirdle, M. (1993). Unusual wear on a
cattle mandible from St Alban’s Abbey. International Journal of
Osteoarchaeology 3, 229.)
Thanks,
Veerle
--
Veerle Linseele
Post-doctoral fellow
Center for Archaeological Sciences
Katholieke Universteit Leuven
Celestijnenlaan 200E
B-3001 Leuven
Belgium
tel + 32 (0) 16 32 64 13 or + 32 (0) 2 627 44 41
fax + 32 (0) 16 32 29 00
e-mail [log in to unmask]
www.archscience.be
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