Dear Zooarchers,
I was wondering whether anybody could help me with the specimen portrayed in the
photo downloadable at:
http://www.alexandriaarchive.org/icaz/icazForum/viewtopic.php?p=1269#1269
This originally comes from a cutlery shop in Sheffield (UK) though it has been
in a museum store for a while and any precise chronological information is
missing though it's likely to be late 19th - early 20th century. I believe that
this is the tip of a buffalo horn (as opposed to horncore). It is dense and not
at all hollow, which I suppose is a feature of the upper part of the horn. I
have seen other bits of buffalo horn from late postmedieval Sheffield
industrial sites. Buffalo horn is supposed to have been imported regularly, and
we find quite a bit of ivory too. I have two questions: can anybody tell me if
there is a chance to separate the African (Syncerus) from the Asian (Bubalus)
buffalo on the basis of the horn morphology which is visible on this specimen?
The second question concerns the fact that the museum curators told me that
manufacturers would make a distinction between 'grey' and 'black' buffalo horn,
though it doesn't know on what basis. I don't think that this distinction has
any zoological meaning, but has anybody heard of it and if so would you know to
what it applies?
Many thanks in advance for your help.
Cheers,
Umberto
--
Umberto Albarella
Department of Archaeology
University of Sheffield
Northgate House
West Street
Sheffield S1 4ET
United Kingdom
Telephone: (+) 44 (0) 114 22 22 943
Fax: (+) 44 (0) 114 27 22 563
http://www.shef.ac.uk/archaeology/staff/albarella.html
For Archaeologists for Global Justice (AGJ) see:
http://www.shef.ac.uk/archaeology/global-justice.html
"There is no way to peace. Peace IS the way".
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