Thanks for this everyone - I will revisit my hyoids and take their photos
for you all - we routinely recover them from our well preserved Hebridean
material and cut marks are often noted both cattle and sheep hyoids.
More contributions welcome.....
Jacqui Mulville (PhD),
Osteography
http://osteography.wordpress.com/
Future Friends/Future Animals
http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/hisar/archaeology/futureanimals/
http://futureanimals.wordpress.com/
School of History and Archaeology, Cardiff University,
Humanities Building, Colum Drive, CARDIFF, CF10 3EU
http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/hisar/people/archaeology/jm1/
Tel: + 44 (0) 29 2087 4247
Fax: + 44 (0) 29 2087 4929
-----Analysis of animal remains from archaeological sites wrote: -----
To: [log in to unmask]
From: Ruth Carden
Sent by: Analysis of animal remains from archaeological sites
Date: 24/02/2010 20:22
Subject: Re: [ZOOARCH] hyoids and throat cutting
Dear Jacqui et al.,
When I routinely bleed and butcher a variety of animals, including deer I
try not to leave any cut marks on the bones. However, in my early days of
skeletal preparations, I found that when bleeding deer that were freshly
shot, I would cut through the jugular and invariably hit the cervical
vertebrae, leaving tell tale cut marks on the bones there. Not to sound
very grim or anything - you bleed out the animal while the last of the
beats of the heart is going when animal is in the last stages of life, this
will then rid the carcase of a lot of the blood, so it does not saturate
into the muscle tissue. If you do not bleed out and intend to consume meat,
the meat tends (I find with deer) to go off faster and the meat is tougher
to eat, than when you do bleed it out.
When I removed the tongue (of any animal), I cut along the lingual side of
each side of the mandibles and peel out the tongue ventrally (after
skinning of course), then it gets caught near the back of the throat at the
hyoid areas. To leave hyoid apparatus in situ, and remove only the tongue,
in those earlier days I would leave telltale cut marks on the same areas of
the hyoids all of the time. These days I have learnt my lesson and leave
virtually no trace.
Jacqui - whatpattern of cut marks are you finding on the hyoids, same bone
and same area or different ?
I wouldn't be interested in the tongue for cooking purposes, just to remove
it so I have clean mandible area, before I cut muscle tissue near
coronoid process and remove mandible from the skull - all ready for the
pot then !
I agree with Danny, if its throat cutting to bleed out animal, you won't
get cut marks on hyoid. If it's to decapitate head from skull (pre / post
bleeding out), then if its tight and close to the back of the mandibles
then you will get some cut marks on some bones of the hyoid apparatus. If
tongue removal, mainly other bones of the apparatus.... hence my question
above.
Best wishes - Ruth
On 24 February 2010 19:43, Ed Maher <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
The sample I studied for my dissertation was from the 7th century BCE
Philistine occupation at Tel Miqne-Ekron, Israel. I found sheep/goat
cervical verts with cut marks on the ventral side. Cut marked axis bones
were exclusively associated with the faunal assemblage from the temple.
***************************************
Edward F. Maher, Ph.D.
Research Associate
Department of Anthropology
The Field Museum
Chicago, IL
National Endowment for the Humanities Fellow
W. F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research
Jerusalem, Israel
> Date: Wed, 24 Feb 2010 09:44:57 -0800
> From: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: [ZOOARCH] hyoids and throat cutting
> To: [log in to unmask]
>
> We see a lot of cut marks and butchering breakage on hyoids from Bison
and other animal kill sites here in Wyoming. These are normally associated
with tongue removal and not throat cutting. My experience in fleshing
modern animals for skeleton processing would be that throat cutting does
not come close to hitting the hyoids and therefore there should be no
damage to them from cutting the throat. They are just to "deep" in the neck
and to high up the throat. Tongue use of somekind would be more logical.
>
> Danny
>
>
> --- [log in to unmask] wrote:
>
> From: Jacqui Mulville <[log in to unmask]>
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: [ZOOARCH] hyoids and throat cutting
> Date: Wed, 24 Feb 2010 16:36:05 +0000
>
> Does anyone have any references or comments on
>
> a. why animals throats are cut? I seem to remember Derek Rixson
mentioning
> this facilitated the removal of the blood and therefore preservation of
the
> carcass.
>
> b. archaeological evidence for throat cutting from hyoids?
>
> Is this covered in Binford? I do not have 'Bones' to hand.....
>
> I often see cut marks on hyoids and I am trying to remember if the link
to
> throat cutting can be evidenced in the literature.
>
> Thanks for any input
>
>
> Jacqui Mulville (PhD),
>
> Osteography
> http://osteography.wordpress.com/
>
> Future Friends/Future Animals
> http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/hisar/archaeology/futureanimals/
> http://futureanimals.wordpress.com/
>
> School of History and Archaeology, Cardiff University,
> Humanities Building, Colum Drive, CARDIFF, CF10 3EU
> http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/hisar/people/archaeology/jm1/
>
> Tel: + 44 (0) 29 2087 4247
> Fax: + 44 (0) 29 2087 4929
>
>
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