Dear Richard,
Dear Richard (and anyone else interested in notched teeth!)
Yes, notching in incisor teeth (on the lateral side at the crown-root
junction), usually more common in older animals, is fairly well known. See
pages 494-5 in: Miles, A.E.W. and Grigson, C. 1990 Colyer's variations and
diseases of the teeth of animals. Cambridge, University Press
And is thought to be caused by the poor animal pulling long grass, perhaps
associated with abrasive soil, being drawn between these teeth during
grazing.
I have reported several cattle incisors and one sheep/goat incisor from the
Saxon and Medieval site of Burystead and Langham Road (see Davis, SJM 1992
Saxon & Medieval animal bones from Burystead and Langham road, Northants;
1984-1987 excavations. London, Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission,
Ancient Monuments Laboratory Report 71/92)
Hope this helps.
Best
Simon
-----Mensagem original-----
De: Analysis of animal remains from archaeological sites
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] Em nome de Richard W Redding
Enviada: quinta-feira, 23 de Agosto de 2007 18:50
Para: [log in to unmask]
Assunto: [ZOOARCH] Cattle teeth
Dear All,
I recently received this e-mail from a colleague who works in physical
anthro. I will post the photos under Russel Nelson on the bone
commons. Please respond to [log in to unmask]
Hi Richard-
I am working with Bill Honeychurch and Josh Wright over in
Mongolia. This year we excavated a Xiongnu context where the individual
had been interred with a number of animals- 7 or 8 horses, 3-4 cows and
about a dozen or more sheep/goats. Since I needed to get all this
livestock off my exam table in the lab tent, I jumped in to help clean
through the recovered stuff. I came across these cow teeth (see
attached) and was struck by the interproximal grooving that mimics what
we see occasionally in humans, generally thought to be the result of
either a palliative measure such as rodding in between teeth with a
toothpick like device (maybe, but I don't buy it on this level) or by
regularly pulling some sort of stringy material through the mouth, such
as in stripping rawhide or grasses (silaceous stuff) in the basket
manufacture process. Since cows eat grass, I reasoned this must be what
does it here, but it still seemed extensive, as well as pervaSIVE (33%
OF A SAMPLE OF 29 TEETH FROM 3-4 COWS)oops- caps lock. Anyway, so I
went out and looked at some Zud piles for a modern comparison (Bill
thinks I'm nuts). The Zud was that winter a few years ago that killed
off about half or more of Mongolia's stock herds, so there are piles of
bones lying around just begging to be looked at and asked research
questions before they all exfoliate and degrade. In a sample of 118 or
so teeth from 3 different zud piles representing maybe 80 animals I
only got like 5% with that kind of grooving, but I did get some, so I
figure faunal guys like you know about this. The question is, is this
something that's so common archaeologically that nobody bothers to look
at it, is it worth following up- I mean, that kind of difference may be
reflecting less in the way of foddering for the archaeological cows, it
could mean they kept them alive longer, so there may a use
differential, I don't know, but it seemed like something I should ask
you about. Any thoughts? Thanks in advance-
Russell NElson
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