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 I have not yet done a survey of new zooarchaeological data so any published or unpublished reports are welcome.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 All messages virus checked by ZoneAlarm ----- Original Message ----- From: BAKER, Polydora<mailto:[log in to unmask]> To: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> 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 ________________________________ Concerned about how climate change may affect older properties? What about saving energy? Visit our new website www.climatechangeandyourhome.org.uk<http://www.climatechangeandyourhome.org.uk/> today. This e-mail (and any attachments) is confidential and may contain personal views which are not the views of English Heritage unless specifically stated. If you have received it in error, please delete it from your system and notify the sender immediately. Do not use, copy or disclose the information in any way nor act in reliance on it. Any information sent to English Heritage may become publicly available. _________________________________________________________________________________ Concerned about how climate change may affect older properties? What about saving energy? Visit our new website www.climatechangeandyourhome.org.uk today. This e-mail (and any attachments) is confidential and may contain personal views which are not the views of English Heritage unless specifically stated. If you have received it in error, please delete it from your system and notify the sender immediately. Do not use, copy or disclose the information in any way nor act in reliance on it. Any information sent to English Heritage may become publicly available.