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Please reply to Margaret and zooarch. Dear all, Ongoing excavations at a post-medieval site in the centre of Cork city have revealed curious lines of upright cattle metapodia that are arranged in rows across a substantial area of the site. In most instances the distal portion of the bone faces upright and despite an initial suspicion that there was a certain patterning in the arrangement of meatacarpals and metatarsals, this does not now prove to be the case. In one area the bones enclose a square area * almost like box hedging for herb gardening! I seem to recall on line discussions about this bone phenomenon before * anybody out there can point me to some references or explanations for such a configuration of metapodia? Looking forward to your responses! Margaret McCarthy PS There are pictures available of the finds and I have already mentioned our IA scottish hearth surrounds (Mulville, J. et al 2003 Quarters, Arcs and Squares: Human and Animal Remains in the Hebridean Late Iron Age. ed J. Downes and A. Ritchie Sea Change: Orkney and Northern Europe in the later Iron Age AD 300-800 The pinkfoot press, Balgavies, Angus) Jacqui