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Dear Eva, I identified a pine marten (Martes martes) skull with fine transverse knife marks across its maxilla as an example of skinning from a late 1st Century AD deposit in a Roman military fort at Annetwell Street, Carlisle. The period is c AD 72/73 - AD 150. I took care to make sure that the identification to species was accurate as the Roman military machine could have imported continental martens/skins (eg beech marten Martes foina). The skull was recovered from a bulk sieved sample of sediment from a stone surface outside of any buildings but within the fort (I thought this was an unusual place to get skinning debris) and there were no other examples of wild (or domestic) fur resource exploitation from the site at this period. There were probably suitable habitats for pine marten within 10 - 15 km of the site, so it could have been caught locally. The site is still unpublished, but there is a report in 'grey' literature that includes two black and white photographs: Stallibrass, S. 1991. Animal bones from excavations at Annetwell Street, Carlisle, 1982-4. period 3: the earlier timber fort. London: English Heritage. Ancient Monuments Laboratory Reports 132/91. Copies (of all AML and Centre for Archaeology reports)should be available from English Heritage, Centre for Archaeology, Fort Cumberland, Eastney, Portsmouth PO4 9LD Telephone 023 9285 6700. The report is very long, however, and I can xerox the relevant pages if this would be useful. The hand recovered material included 2 cat bones (neither cut) and 18 dog bones/fragments, one of which (a fibula) has some cutmarks across the distal articulation. N.B. there are some butchered horse bones as well that appear to relate to hide removal. This is just one report, memorable to me for the pine marten skull. I (and many others) have many unpublished reports of material from excavations and evaluation trenches. The material from evaluations, in particular, is unlikely ever to see publication in journals. It would take me some time to check through them all. Are you really planning to trawl through all reports for your long list of species for all periods, or are you doing a preliminary scoping search before narrowing down your target species/time period/geographical area? best wishes, Sue --On 17 June 2003 09:29 +0100 Eva Fairnell <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > > Dear list members > > For my thesis, I am gathering data on fur-bearing animals within the UK. > I am interested in what species we have been skinning, processing or > perhaps importing and using for fur, and when and where this has taken > place. My target species include dog, cat, wolf, fox, badger, mustelids, > hare, rabbit, squirrel, seal, bear. > I am in the process of systematically searching various journals for any > bone reports that include fur-bearing species. I am recording presence of > relevant native and non-native species, and any data on the elements and > knife marks found. > I would be very grateful and interested to hear about any data list > members know about, published or unpublished, regarding sites and species > where there seems to be evidence of processing and/or the use of fur, at > whatever scale and at any time period. If anyone can think of any less > obvious species I may have overlooked, please also let me know. > Many thanks > > Eva > > Eva Fairnell > MSc in Zooarchaeology student at the University of York > [log in to unmask] Dr. Sue Stallibrass English Heritage Archaeological Science Adviser for North-West England Department of Archaeology Hartley Building University of Liverpool LIVERPOOL L69 3GS direct telephone: +44 (0)151 794 5046 departmental FAX: +44 (0)151 794 5057 e-mail: [log in to unmask]