Dear Dr. Ukkonen: I don't know anything about the method you mention, but
I sure would like to look at your collection of horse skulls. What I would
most want to know about them is:
(a) The frequency and degree of malocclusions of the teeth
(b) The nature of any food material packed into the fossettes and/or
packed between the teeth
(c) The shape/wear patterns on the jaw condyles
All of these methods can be used to give reliable information as to
whether a given skull is domestic vs. wild or feral. (a) and (c) are
methods that I myself have developed but would be glad to teach other
workers. Method (b) was developed by Dr. William Akerston, Idaho State
University (retired). To take advantage of (b) one needs the cooperation
of a botanist or paleobotanist familiar with common horse feeds and/or the
vegetation growing on the likely range of the animal in question.
If you had photographs of the condyles and dentitions -- or would like to
send me even just a sample of one or a few of them -- I would be glad to
give you an opinion of what the likelihood is that the animal in question
was feral or wild, which of course would assist you in determining the age
as being possibly subfossil. --
Deb Bennett, Ph.D., Director
Equine Studies Institute
California
> I haven't heard of this method being used on bone.
>
> One question I have is whether the necessary chemical assays would cost
> less than radiocarbon dating.
>
> Richard
>
> On 27/10/2012 03:51, Pirkko Ukkonen wrote:
>>
>>
>>
>> Dear colleagues, Has anyone heard anything more about the method
>> developed by Kjell Johnsson
>> (http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305440396901272) in
>> the 90s coursly separating subfossil bones from recent ones using
>> diagenetic changes in bone apatite? Or has someone even used it? We have
>> a lot of horse bones and teeth in our museum collections, and dating
>> them all would be much too expensive - especially since most or all of
>> them are propably recent and have only been buried deep by their owners.
>> But what if.... Cheers, Dr. Pirkko Ukkonen, curator
>> Finnish Museum of Natural History
>> Palaeontology (Geological Museum)
>> Box 11 (Snellmaninkatu 3, Arppeanum, Room 328)
>> FIN-00014 University of Helsinki
>> phone: +358-9-19122572
>> email: [log in to unmask]
>>
>
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