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Dear all, Many thanks for your help. Our modern female specimen has a humerus GL of 104.2mm and our male specimen has a humerus GL of 101.1mm, so perhaps we need more data on bone sizes in more northerly birds as Simon has called for. I will also check the original identification and provenance of our male specimen.
The archaeological female goshawk was discarded along with a male sparrow-hawk (based on size) in a 13th c. cesspit at Windsor and I have not ruled out that the latter might have been used for hawking (though perhaps for taking smaller quarry on the whole). I’m aware of the discussions regarding sex of archaeological birds in Prummel (1997) but Cherryson (2002) notes that little data has been published on the sexes of archaeological specimens from medieval England, so it’s difficult to know what the female:male ratio would have been generally. Michell (1900) mentions “the use of the trained sparrow hawk, both male and female…”.but the discussion focuses on female birds. I have not yet done a survey of new zooarchaeological data so any published or unpublished reports are welcome.
Best wishes, Poly
Cherryson, A.K., 2002 The identification of archaeological evidence for hawking in medieval England, in Acta zoological cracoviensia, 45: 307-314.
Michell, E.B., 1900 The art and practice of hawking. London:Methuen and Co.
Prummel, W., 1997 Evidence of hawking (falconry) from bird and mammal bones, in International Journal of Osteoarchaeology, 7: 333-338.
Dr. Polydora Baker
Senior Zooarchaeologist
English Heritage
Research Department
Fort Cumberland
Fort Cumberland Rd.
Eastney, Portsmouth
P04 9LD
Tel.: 02392 856774
FAX: 02392 856701
Environmental Studies website:
http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/environmental_archaeology
-----Original
Message-----
From: S H-D
[mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 06
January 2009 16:28
To: BAKER, Polydora;
[log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [ZOOARCH] goshawk
bone measurements
Hi all, the humerus is within the measurements of the female ones in Otto 1981 (do none of you have the Munich volumes?) she has measurements for 18 male and 17 female with ranges for the LC (equivalent to vdd GL) of 84.9 - 91.1 and 96.9 - 104.0. My own female (from the Netherlands) is 102.
Sheila
SH-D ArchaeoZoology
http://www.shd-archzoo.co.uk
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----- Original Message -----
From: [log in to unmask]">BAKER, Polydora
Sent: Tuesday, January 06, 2009 1:45 PM
Subject: [ZOOARCH] goshawk bone measurements
Dear all
I have a partial goshawk (Accipiter gentilis) skeleton which compares in size to both a male and female reference specimen to which I have had access. However, I have read that sexual dimorphism is pronounced in this species. My measurements are:
Humerus
GL 103.5mm
Bp 20.8mm
SC 8.23 mm
other humerus
SC 8.23mm
Ulna
Bp 13.0mm
Sc 6.0mm
Did 11.3mm
Can anyone send me comparative measurements from modern reference specimens for both male and female goshawks.
Many thanks in advance, Poly
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