Just two cents' worth on this conversation: do recognize that the beaver
family (Castoridae) has quite a number of arid-climate representatives in
the Tertiary fossil record. These are the "daemonelix" or "Devil's
corkscrew" beavers that dug themselves a ten or twelve-foot-deep spiral
"staircase" into the subsoil, deep enough to interesect the water table,
whereat they built the same kind of airlock-entranceway that characterizes
beaverdams everywhere. Look at my old publ. in Paleo-cubed (first author
was Larry Martin, I was a graduate student then, about 1976) to read about
Paleocastor fossor. Bottom line is it wouldn't surprise me if even some
species or subspecies of Castor had the latent capability to dig into the
sand to the depth of the water table, and live in similar manner. It would
be fascinating to hear report of such. Cheers -- Deb Bennett
> I have identified beaver and muskrat in archaeological sites in the
> semi-arid American Southwest in areas where streams today are
> intermittent. Changes in the streams may be a result of overgrazing in the
> last century, but might also reflect changes in the rainfall regime over a
> longer period. (I am Canadian and I'm fairly sure we also have some
> unrecognized ceramic hockey pucks from those sites)
> Jon
>
> ----- Original Message -----
>
> From: "Burke Ariane" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Sent: Friday, January 29, 2016 9:43:43 PM
> Subject: Re: [ZOOARCH] Castor fiber
>
> Ethnic stereotyping on zooarch - tabernacle!
> Did they also uncover hockey sticks?
>
> Dr. Ariane Burke, Professeure Titulaire,
> Directrice scientifique, Laboratoire d'Ecomorphologie et de
> Paleoanthropologie
> Universite de Montreal, Departement d'Anthropologie,
> C.P. 6128, Centre-Ville,
> Montreal, QC,
> Canada H3C 3J7
>
> http://www.hominindispersals.net/
>
> Laboratoire d'archeologie prehistorique
> Institut J.-A. Forel, Sciences de la Terre,
> Universite de Geneve
> ________________________________________
> From: Analysis of animal remains from archaeological sites
> [[log in to unmask]] on behalf of Zeder, Melinda [[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: January 29, 2016 4:15 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: [ZOOARCH] Castor fiber
>
> Hi Susanne,
>
> Beaver are quite well represented at a number of sites I've working on the
> the Near East - especially Epiplaleolithic Hallan Çemi in southeastern
> Anatolia. I also have beaver from a third millennium context in the Khabur
> Basin of Syria - of course the site was excavagted by French Canadians....
>
> Mindy
>
> Melinda A. Zeder
> Senior Scientist, Program in Human Ecology and Archaeobiology
> Curator, Old World Archaeology
> Department of Anthropology
> National Museum of Natural History
> Smithsonian Institution
> Mailing Address:
> 45 Gold Trail
> Santa Fe, NM 87508
> Phone: 703 626-9118
> [log in to unmask]
> ________________________________________
> From: Analysis of animal remains from archaeological sites
> [[log in to unmask]] on behalf of Susanne C. Münzel
> [[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: Friday, January 29, 2016 3:40 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: [ZOOARCH] Castor fiber
>
> Dear Zooarchers,
> I just wonder about the evidence of beaver in Near Eastern context.......I
> thought it is a typical European species, since it needs water and trees
> .........I just work with beaver in Mesolithic South-German
> context...........but unfortunately the remains are not
> measurable.........
> Best Susanne
>
> Dr. Susanne C. Münzel
> Universität Tübingen
> Naturwissenschaftliche Archäologie
> - Arbeitsbereich Archäozoologie -
> Rümelinstr. 23
> D-72070 Tübingen
> Tel.: -49(0)7071-29 77144
>
> privat: Mendelssohnstr. 108
> 70619 Stuttgart
> Tel.: 0711/4780683
>
> [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
> www.urgeschichte.uni-tuebingen.de<http://www.urgeschichte.uni-tuebingen.de>
>
> Am 28.01.2016 um 18:26 schrieb Jill Weber:
> UPDATE:
>
> Becker has a few measurements in:
> Becker, C. 2005 “Small numbers, large potential - new prehistoric finds of
> elephant and beaver from the Khabur river/Syria” MUNIBE
> Antropologia-Arkeologia 57: 445-56
> still searching for more!
>
> On Thu, Jan 28, 2016 at 11:35 AM, Jill Weber
> <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> wrote:
> Hi All -
>
> Does anyone have/know of a source for beaver-bone measurements?
> Particularly from turkey or syria? or close?
>
> Thanks!
>
> --
> Jill Weber, Phd
> Consulting Scholar, Near East Section
> The University Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology
> Philadelphia, PA 19103 USA
>
>
>
> --
> Jill Weber, Phd
> Consulting Scholar, Near East Section
> The University Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology
> Philadelphia, PA 19103 USA
>
>
>
> --
>
> ----------
> Jonathan C. Driver, PhD, RPA
> Vice-President, Academic and Provost
> Professor of Archaeology
> Simon Fraser University, 8888 University Drive
> Burnaby, British Columbia, V5A 1S6, Canada
> [log in to unmask]
> Telephone: 778 782 3925
> Fax: 778 782 5876
> www.sfu.ca
>
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