Dear Lenny,
The best skin come from castrated male goat, not from entire male goat :
more thick that of female, less hard that of non castrated male. The best
"maroquin", one of the nicest leather are made with skin of castrated male
goat.
See :
Fabre, Forest et al 2002 : L. FABRE, V. FOREST, O. GINOUVEZ : *Blancaria*
et maroquinerie à Montpellier (Hérault) au bas Moyen Age. in "Le travail du
cuir de la Préhistoire à nos jours", XXIIe rencontres internationales
d'archéologie et d'histoire d'Antibes, F. Audoin-Rouzeau, S. Beyries
(dir.), Editions APDCA, Antibes, pp.437-450
Forest et al 2004: FOREST V. , GINOUVEZ O. , FABRE L. (2004) : Les fouilles
de la Faculté de Droit à Montpellier. Urbanisme et artisanat de la peau
dans une agglomération languedocienne du bas Moyen-Âge. Archéologie du Midi
Médiéval, 22, pp.45-76.
Cordialement
Vianney FOREST
2015-05-13 12:13 GMT+02:00 Lenny Salvagno <[log in to unmask]>:
> Dear zooarchers,
>
> I am investigating about the high presence of goat horncore deposits found
> at several English urban medieval sites.
>
> As one of the hypotheses is that a trade of goat skins, with the horns
> still attached, was carried out, I have been reading several papers and in
> some it is said that "the goat male skin were more profitable and of better
> quality than the female skin". But no reasons are given for such a
> difference ("The under-rated goat", Noddle 1994; "Urban Medieval sites in
> Netherlands", Prummel 1982).
>
> So, I want to ask if you know, because of your experience or because you
> have read it somewhere, why the skin of a male goat would be of a better
> quality than the female one.
>
> It a matter of size? fat content?
>
> Do you have any reference to suggest about this matter?
>
> Thank you very much,
>
> Lenny Salvagno
>
--
Vianney FOREST
Docteur vétérinaire biologiste, archéozoologue
INRAP Méditerranée
561, rue Etienne Lenoir
Km Delta
30900 NÎMES
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