Hi all, yes I too have often noted a bias in certain elements, regardless of
site/period/bird - if it helps anyone to think about it, as an example, in
large groups from Medieval Ireland and Novgorod in Russia the hand-collected
bird bones I had were mostly of fowl and ducks - bias to leg (and humerus)
in fowl, wings in duck - if you compare element sizes that was the main
bias - eg cmc ok in duck, but few in fowl, femur ok in fowl but few for the
ducks etc etc. There is a double thing going on here - not just the physical
size but also the meat value (legs on ducks and seabirds can be small and
tough, wings on fowl not worth bothering with). If anyone has the time and
suitable material it would be interesting to see which factor (size or
desirability) is the major factor!
Sheila
SH-D ArchaeoZoology
http://www.shd-archzoo.co.uk
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----- Original Message -----
From: "seth b." <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Sunday, March 02, 2008 10:56 PM
Subject: Re: [ZOOARCH] puffin butchery and consumption
Hello Jacqui and all,
I'm joining this thread a bit late, but I just wanted
to note that I'm currently analyzing a 9th -- 13th c.
AD faunal assemblage from Sandoy, Faroe Islands (see
Church et al. 2005, referenced below in Dale
Serjeantson's post). The assemblage is dominated in
most phases by wild seabird, the vast majority of
which is puffin.
Though my analysis of the material is ongoing, the
data thus far suggest an over-abundance of wing
elements. If anyone is interested, I'm happy to email
you a summary of element representation and/or
preliminary reports, so please do let me know!
Cheers,
Seth
Seth D. Brewington
PhD Program in Archaeology
Department of Anthropology
Graduate School and University Center, CUNY
365 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10016-4309
[log in to unmask]
--- "Serjeantson D." <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:
> Hi Jacqui and all,
>
> Your puffins sound very tasty.
>
> This is a fascinating book on seabird fowling,
> with plenty of references to puffin but no recipes
> as far as I remember:
>
> Randall, J. (ed.) 2005. Traditions of Seabird
> Fowling in the North Atlantic Region, Stornaway: The
> Islands Book Trust.
>
> Some or all of these also include references to
> catching and eating puffins in Iceland and the
> Faroes:
>
> Church, M. J., S. V. Arge, S. Brewington, T.
> McGovern, J. M. Woollett, S. Perdikaris, I. T.
> Lawson, G. T. Cook, C. Amunsden, R. Harrison, Y.
> Krivogorskaya & E. Dunbar, 2005. Puffins, pigs, cod
> and barley: palaeoeconomy at Undir Junkarinsflotti,
> Sandoy, Faroe Islands. Environmental Archaeology,
> 10, 179-97.
>
>
> McGovern, T., 1992. Bones, buildings and boundaries:
> palaeoeconomic approaches to Norse Greenland, in
> Norse and Later Settlement and Subsistence in the
> North Atlantic, eds. C. D. Morris & D. J. Rackham.
> Glasgow: University of Glasgow Department of
> Archaeology
> McGovern, T., S. Perdikaris, Á. Einarsson & J.
> Sidell, 2006. Coastal connections, local fishing,
> and sustainable egg harvesting: patterns of Viking
> Age inland wild resource use in Mývatn District,
> Northern Iceland. Environmental Archaeology, 11(1),
> 187-206.
>
> Re the dominance of wing elements, you could also
> look at: Cruz, I., 2005. La representación de partes
> esqueléticas de aves. Patrones naturales e
> interpretación arqueológica. Archaeofauna, 14,
> 69-81.
>
> Cheers
> Dale
>
>
> Dale Serjeantson
> Visiting Research Fellow
> Archaeology
> School of Humanities
> University of Southampton
> Southampton SO17 1BJ, UK
>
> [log in to unmask]
>
> http://www.arch.soton.ac.uk/people/dale
>
> ________________________________
>
> From: Analysis of animal remains from archaeological
> sites on behalf of GREGORY CAMPBELL
> Sent: Mon 25/02/2008 15:12
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: [ZOOARCH] puffin butchery and
> consumption
>
>
> Alan Davidson's Oxford Companion to Food, the first
> book you should turn to if you have any food-related
> questions, lists puffin as one of the national
> dishes for the Faroe Islands, where it is served
> roasted with potatoes, gravy and jam, and
> (unimaginably) as soup with raisin dumplings or
> stuffed with sponge cake.
>
> Greg Campbell
>
> Hello Zooarchers,
>
> Does anyone have any good references (or recipies)
> for puffin? We have a puffin-dominated Iron Age
> assemblaged dominated by wing elements - does anyone
> know of comparible sites? I have a student
> working on the material and we have drawn a blank on
> any accounts of puffin preparation/butchery.
>
> I hope you can help.
>
> Jacqui
>
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