Many thanks to those who replied to my questions about cattle teeth in the Pompeian latrine. It seems that the deposit is unique among zooarchaeological contexts in terms of its abundance of incisors. It might be someone's collection -- I suppose I might be more inclined to save the front teeth on an animal as opposed to other parts of its skeleton.
Laszlo Bartosiewicz contributed the following (re: the grooving on the teeth), which I've attached below:
I cannot comment on the deposit as a whole. But
the grooving (incl. symmetric) on incisors was first
observed in cave bear and was later identified as
irregular toothwear by Hahne (1908: 56, Taf. 19/2-4).
It was described on red deer at the Urnfield culture
site of Stillfried in Austria (Pucher 1986: 115, Abb.
53) and on a 13th c. deciduous cattle incisor from
Freyenstein, Germany (Müller 1990: 150-151, Abb. 5-6)
He also mentions the phenomenon on a pig upper M3. A
neolithic example in cattle was mentioned by Cavallo
(1997: 77) from Tell Sabi Abyad in Syria.
Hans-Herman Müller's is the best summary on the topic.
I have seen a few specimens myself, but I think, the
wear may have to do with excess "flossing" as the
animal tears off the grass. Its relatively low
incidence may be illustrated by your rich deposit.
Cavallo, C. 1997 Animals in the Steppe. A
zooarchaeological analysis of later Neolithic Tell
Sabi Abyad, Syria. Dissertation, Amsterdam,
Universiteit van Amsterdam.
Hahne, H. 1908 Kritik der älteren Funde und
Fundberichte, mit besonderer Berücksichtigung der
menschlichen Kulturreste. In A. Windhausen and H.
Hahne eds.: Die Einhornhöhle bei Scharzfeld am Harz
II. Hannover, Jahrbuch des Provinzial-Museums zu
Hannover 1907-1908: 50-62.
Müller, H.-H. 1990 Keilförmige Defekte an fossilen und
subfossilen Tierzähnen und ihre Bedeutung für die
archäologische Forschung. In J. Schibler, J. Sedlmeier
and H.-P. Spycher eds.: Festschrift für Hans R.
Stampfli. Beiträge zur Archäozoologie, Archäologie,
Anthropologie, Geologie und Paläontologie. Basel,
Helbing & Lichtenhahn: 147-152.
Pucher, E. 1986 Untersuchungen an Tierskeletten aus
der Urnenfelderkultur von Stillfried an der March
(Niederösterreich). Forschungen in Stillfried 7:
23-116.
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Michael MacKinon
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