Dear Kevin,
I’ve done quite a lot of work on sheep horn-cores (sexing and determining
level of skeletal improvement) which I plan to write up this summer. I now
have a large database of horn-core measurements from animals of known age,
sex and breed. Using these data I have found it possible to separate adult
males, females and castrates (regardless of breed) to a high degree of
accuracy. The basal measurement (basal circumference, greatest basal
diameter and smallest basal diameter) are the most useful, especially the
last two. I can let you have a copy of my database and analyses if you
like. All the best,
Naomi
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Dr Naomi Sykes,
School of History and Archaeology,
Cardiff University,
CF10 3EU
Original Message:
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From: Rielly, Kevin [log in to unmask]
Date: Wed, 10 May 2006 14:15:33 +0100
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [ZOOARCH] sexing sheep horncores
Dear All,
I have a large collection of sheep horncores from a late medieval/early
post medieval site near Tower Bridge in London. I was wondering about
sexing these items and came across a method described in Armitages
Baynard's Castle thesis (1977, 83) where the sex can be determined (male,
female and castrate) by the extent of the internal cavity (following
Hatting 1975). Does anyone know if there has been any further work done on
this sexing method?
All the best
Kevin
Refs:-
Armitage, P.L. 1977. The Mammalian Remains from the Tudor Site of Baynard's
Castle, London: A Biometrical and Historical Analysis, unpublished PhD
Thesis, University of London.
Hatting, T. 1975. The influence of castration on sheep horns. In Clason,
A.T. (ed) Archaeological Studies. 345-51.
Kevin Rielly
Animal Bone Specialist
Museum of London Specialist Services
Mortimer Wheeler House
46 Eagle Wharf Road
London. N1 7ED
Tel: 020 7566 9330
Fax: 020 7490 3995
Email: [log in to unmask]
www.molss.org.uk
Requiem: the medieval monastic cemetery in Britain - a new book produced
for the University of Reading
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