Dear Jennie,
Since you ask in general about cut marks on felid phalanges you may be
interested in the finding of clear cut marks on (presumably) domestic cat
*first* phalanges from a late 9th-11th cent AD phase from the town of Norwich,
England. I have attached (on BoneCommons) a photo of one of these specimens
http://www.alexandriaarchive.org/icaz/icazForum/viewtopic.php?t=983.
Our interpetation of these marks is that they were due to cat skinning, a well
recorded practice in medieval Britain. The phalanx in the photo in particular
comes from an almost complete skeleton of a cat - probably the remains of a
carcass dumped after skinning.
The cuts are on the first rather than second phalanx, but they are placed
distally, therefore not far from the proximal second phalanx where you found
yours. Bearing also in mind that cat second phalanges are smaller than those
of a Lynx, I wonder whether skinning could not also be an interpretation for
your finding. The skin of a bobcat might have been valuable and there could
have been an interest in cutting it as distally as possible.
I must however also mention that a rather large assemblage of skinned cats from
medieval Cambridge did not produce any cuts on the phalanges despite these
bones were abundantly recovered.
Here are the refs:
Albarella U., Beech M. & Mulville J. 1997 . The Saxon, medieval and
post-medieval mammal and bird bones excavated 1989-1991 from Castle Mall,
Norwich (Norfolk). London: English Heritage AML report 72/97
Luff, R. and Moreno Garcia M. 1995. Killing cats in the medieval period. An
unusual episode in the history of Cambridge, England. Archaeofauna 4, 93-114
Cheers,
Umberto
--
Umberto Albarella
Department of Archaeology
University of Sheffield
Northgate House
West Street
Sheffield S1 4ET
United Kingdom
Telephone: (+) 44 (0) 114 22 22 943
Fax: (+) 44 (0) 114 27 22 563
http://www.shef.ac.uk/archaeology/staff/albarella.html
For Archaeologists for Global Justice (AGJ) see:
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"There is no way to peace. Peace IS the way".
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