Dear all,
I am currently at Butrint in Albania and have come
across a piece of worked bone from late Hellenistic
(probably) deposits, it is wedge-shaped, and appears
to be a blank worked on a long bone shaft near one of
the ends as there are remnants of the cancellous bone.
The cortical bone thickness at this point is 14.5mm
and the external surface of the bone shaft has a
slightly concave profile so I suppose the piece is
from a tibia or radius or metapodial rather than a
femur or tibia. The cortical thickness is too great
for any of the domestic mammals and I'm strongly
tempted to suggest elephant. I'm told Pyrrhus of
Epirus was famous for keeping Indian elephants but
this would be the first specimen from Butrint except
some finished ivories. Does anyone have any
suggestions of what else it might plausibly be? Is it
too great for aurochs? Would it be possible to
speciate by looking at a thin section? Does anyone
know of any other specimens around this period from
the Mediterranean? I can send pictures to anzone who
is interested
Cheers,
Adrienne
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