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Hi Ania
I have seen drilled horncores in post-medieval tannery waste from London as a result of hanging skins and other examples have nails driven into the bases. Below are a couple of publications reporting similar evidence. Do you have any structures that could be associated with tanning or a bias towards lower-limb bones that would have been left attached to the skins as they are transported to tanneries?  Or is your site near where tanning could have taken place with a good water source and maybe just outside the town because of the smell it creates?
Hope this helps, sorry I won't have email access for the next month but if you have any queries I can get back to you after that. All the best, Lisa

Ervynck, A., Hillewaert, B., Maes, A. and Van Strydonck, M. 2002. Tanning and horn-working at late- and post-medieval Bruges: The organic record. In Murphy, P. and Wiltshire. P. (eds.) The environmental archaeology of industry. pp. 60-70. Oxford: Oxbow Books.


Prummel, W.  1978. Animal bones from tannery pits of 's-Hertogenbosch. Berichten van de rijksdienst voor het oudheidkundig bodemonderzoek 28: 399-422.


> Date: Thu, 8 Aug 2013 16:02:19 +0200
> From: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: [ZOOARCH] Horncore pathology and perforations
> To: [log in to unmask]
>
> Dear All,
>
> I came across some perforated horncores and I wonder what the purpose of the perforations could be (they were drilled). Has anybody found anything similar?
>
> http://zooarchaeology.ning.com/photo/img-3611?context=user
> http://zooarchaeology.ning.com/photo/img-3613?context=user
>
> Another question concerns the cause of the pathology at the link below, could it be a fracture at the animal's early age which then healed abnormally?
>
> http://zooarchaeology.ning.com/photo/img-3628?context=user
>
> All the remains come from a Late Medieval town of Kołobrzeg, near the Baltic coast.
>
> Thanks for your help in advance,
> Ania