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Dear Katerina There's some evidence of rodent consumption from southern Africa. Shortridge (1934:vol I, 240) mentions vlei rat being caught and eaten in Botswana, in his book on the former South West Afrca, now Namibia. "Vlei" is an Afrikaans word for marsh or wetland: "The Okavango Native Tribes burn off the reed-beds during the dry season, and, with the aid of dogs, capture enormous numbers of Otomys [vlei rats] …; these are eaten and form an important meat supply.” The reference; Shortridge, G. C. 1934. The mammals of South West Africa. Volume I. London: William Heinemann. Then is there an insightful article by prof. Chris Henshilwood, which describes the capturing and cooking of Cape dune mole-rats near Blombos Cave, southern Cape, South Africa. Mole-rats are fairly large (larger than vlei rats), weighing on average 900g. Interestingly, prepared (cooked) mole-rats typically show burning of the incisors and premaxilla; Henshilwood, C. S. 1997. Identifying the collector: evidence for human processing of the Cape dune mle-rat, Bathyergus suillus, from Blombos Cave, Southern Cape, South Africa. Journal of Archaeological Science 24(7):659-662. Lee's ethnographical work on the San of Botswana describes the hunting and preparing of porcupines, the largest rodent of southern Africa. These weigh some 13-27 kg! All best, Shaw Mr. Shaw Badenhorst Department of Archaeology Simon Fraser University 8888 University Drive Burnaby, British Columbia V5A 1S6 Canada email: [log in to unmask] On Wed, 17 Aug 2005 14:54:44 +0100 [log in to unmask] wrote: > Dear Everyone, > > I am an MPhil from Cambridge and work on microfaunal skeletal material > from a Bronze Age site in the Aegean Sea, Greece. My material comes > from urban contexts, mainly kitchens, hearths and vessels, and enough > of it is burnt. I am exploring the possibility of it being purposely > burnt for cooking and I am looking for any ethnographic parallel, > ancient or modern, on rodent consumption/cooking. Any ideas? > > Katerina Papayiannis > > > --------------------------------- > Χρησιμοποιείτε Yahoo! > Βαρεθήκατε τα ενοχλητικά μηνύ ματα (spam); Το Yahoo! Mail διαθέτει > την καλύτερη δυνατή προστασία κατά των ενοχλητικών μηνυμάτων > http://login.yahoo.com/config/mail?.intl=gr