Ellen - that is a wonderful story that more than justifies the existence
of zooarch.
Terry
E Hambleton wrote:
>
> Dear Laszlo,
> I'm afraid I have no archaeological examples but I do have a more recent
> one....
> About 16 years ago a school friend of mine suffered the sad yet
> inevitable loss of a much beloved but ageing hamster. She voiced her
> grief to her mother, in particular her sadness that she would no longer
> be able to stroke his soft fur. In an unsurpassed act of compassion her
> mother (a biology teacher - which probably explains a lot) skinned and
> cured the hamster skin in order that her daughter could continue to
> stroke the soft fur of her cherished pet.
>
> I'm sorry to say that at the tender age of eleven I was not sufficiently
> precocious in my archaeozoological career to request the skeleton,
> otherwise today I would have been in the happy position to be able to
> offer you a modern comparative of a skinned hamster of known age, sex
> and name (Primrose).
>
> I'm not sure whether archaeozoologists of the future would consider this
> act as functional, ritual, or symbolic of a broader cultural malaise.
> However, it may or may not be indicative of the depth of the value
> attached to this small treasure that Liz and I had a brief falling-out a
> few years later after I commented that the aforementioned hamster skin
> would make a fine beer mat.
>
> Good luck with the search for more useful examples!
>
> Ellie
> --
> Dr Ellen Hambleton
> School of Conservation Sciences
> Bournemouth University
> Talbot Campus
> Fern Barrow
> Poole
> Dorset BH12 5BB
>
> Tel: 01202 595170
> E-mail: [log in to unmask]
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