Dear All,
the Avar cemetery in Vienna I am currently working on yielded large amounts of femora of sheep, cattle and pig, as well as cattle patella, but nearly no other elements of these species. I tried different uni- and divariate osteometric sexing methods, but especially with the femora the results are unsatisfactory. The cattle patella (n=33), however, shows two quite distinct size groups (divariate Analysis GL– GB); the same applies for the Manching (n=18) and Mikulcice (n=231) patella finds I used for comparison. I know that anthropologists use the patella to sex human remains, but I did not find any published examples of an application of this possible sexing method for domestic livestock, although measurable patella finds should not be too uncommon. Does anyone know how reliable these results are or whether the two groups are merely "artefacts" due to the fact that the individual ages are not fathomable?
And does anyone have any ingenious femur sexing ideas?
Thanks in advance!
All the best,
Henriette
Henriette Kroll
Zooarchaeologist
Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum
Ernst-Ludwig-Platz 2
D-55116 Mainz
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