Hi,
The Vindolanda "target" cattle skulls are indeed extremely
fascinating.
There was an example of a Roman cattle tibia excavated at the
Tower of London some years back that had an iron ballista-bolt shot
through it - possibly evidence of target practice by troops manning the
artillery pieces mounted in the bastions forming part of the defences
in this part of the Roman city.
Philip
>----Original Message----
>From: [log in to unmask]
>Date: 15/04/2011 20:47
>To: <[log in to unmask]>
>Subj: Re: [ZOOARCH] re bone hacking
>
>Oh, how totally cool. Please go 'ave a look at the Vindolanda
research
>reports, either the more recent one with color plates from 2006, or
else
>the older papers by Hodgson and/or the many semi-popular booklets by
Robin
>Birley, wherein there are photos of cow skulls used for target
practice. I
>looked at these fairly closely for the 2006 report and we published
some
>closeup photography in there of the holes in the skulls made on
impact
>from ballista bullets, lance heads, and iron arrowheads, which made
it
>clear that they were not shooting at some dried-up old skull but
rather
>had selected a fresh-butchered head with the hide still on. The bone
was
>'wet' when it was shot and you can tell this from the way the
>microfragmented bone substance 'surged' upward around the edges of
the
>hole, not to mention the lack of cracks radiating outward from the
hole.
>
>Also, consistently these 'target skulls' are modified 'round the
back,
>with the foramen magnum hacked with a few quick chops to make it
bigger,
>so that the head could then be stuck onto a pole. Likewise, a little
>different sort of situation, but with similar-looking evidence of
>impalement, is a high majority of our cattle scapulas appear to have
been
>impaled on iron hooks, which goes along with the fact that we have way
too
>many scapulas for the likely number of actual cows on site: meaning
the
>Roman army was importing smoked beef shoulder from somewhere else, i.
e. up
>in Denmark maybe, where I readily picture this beefy proto-Viking
type
>with hairy shoulders walking down the center aisle of a long stone
barn
>while pulling a cart loaded with fresh-slaughtered shoulders, lagging
them
>one by one onto iron hooks as he passed through the smoke....
>
>....of course because the scapula is thin, and Mr. Rus was large, the
>scapulas show not only a hole in the blade but often a set of
concentric
>impact cracks, with or without some radial cracks. The 'bust out' is
>always from medial to lateral, meaning that our red-headed friend knew
to
>hang the shoulders hide-side-out. Yet that these bones, like the
'target
>skulls', were wet when impacted is evident from the relative paucity
of
>such cracks, as well as from the wee rim (visible with hand lens) of
>finely comminuted powdered bone substance which 'surged' up with
impact
>along the rim of the hole made by the point of the iron hook.
>
>I expect that if these characters you've got who seem straight out of
the
>Silmarillion or the Ring Cycle were testing their newforged weapons,
you
>will find evidence on the bones not only of the test-hacks, but that
they
>were done while the bone was still wet, and also while the limb or
chunk
>of a limb was hung on a peg or a post so that it would stand up to
impact
>as an enemy's body would and not just swing around i.e. as if hung
from
>the ceiling by a rope. Cheers, and I'd love to see this paper with a
full
>report when it hits the streets -- Dr. Deb
>
>> To clarify - the site Dani refers to is an Iron Age cave, on the
island of
>> Skye lying at the bottom of a steep cliff . Presently it is hard
to
>> access, by foot, although a lack sea level change in this part of
Scotland
>> suggests it was the same in the Iron Age. The cave has a number of
>> hearths and evidence of metal working activity (potential in iron
smithing
>> and smelting and smithing in bronze), and a bit of wolf, a
perforated
>> human skull, antler pegs, antler picks, a horn button and a ivory
sword
>> pommel....and more.
>>
>> The assemblage to date is made up of 85% old female cattle (MNI 16
to
>> date) who have not been neatly butchered for meat, but bear evidence
of
>> non-normative patterns of butchery, with heavy bladed tools i.e.
with many
>> whole bones semi-chopped - i.e. heavy blade entered and removed
without
>> breaking up the bone - somewhat like sword injuries on humans.
Some of
>> these could be enacted on relatively complete animals whilst others
have
>> to have occurred once animals were divided to a greater or lesser
degree.
>> There are also many relatively complete bones and is some evidence
for
>> heating of the mid-shaft of bones followed by 'cracking' (but not
>> chopping) for marrow.
>>
>> Now how the cattle got to the cave remains unclear; initial
analysis
>> suggests there are some entire individuals present. Some butchery
may be
>> associated with division of cattle to get them into the cave,
however as I
>> mentioned sometime the bones are not entirely cut and the copious
hacking
>> marks do not respect any joints. Whoever these folk where they did
not
>> care about not blunting their weapons (indeed were they testing them
on
>> cattle carcasses?).
>>
>> We are awaiting this seasons material (hurrah) but Dani has been
looking
>> at some of the material for her undergraduate dissertation and we
have
>> been speculating on non-normative butchery. So if not standard
carcass
>> division, nor butchery for cooking, nor directly assoicated with
marrow
>> extraction nor 'roman style' stew....what was this butchery for?
>>
>> Anyhow that is enough for a friday afternoon....
>>
>>
>> Jacqui Mulville (PhD),
>> Senior Lecturer in Bioarchaeology
>> Public Engagement and STEM Ambassador
>>
>> Osteography - Art and Arche(zo)ology continues at
>> http://osteography.wordpress.com/
>>
>> School of History, Archaeology and Religion,
>> Cardiff University, Humanities Building, Colum Drive, CARDIFF,
CF10 3EU
>> http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/share/contactsandpeople/academicstaff/K-O/mulville-jacqui-dr-overview_new.html
>>
>>
>> Tel: + 44 (0) 29 2087 4247
>> Fax: + 44 (0) 29 2087 4929
>>
>
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