Yes, cuts on the skull especially above or near the eye are common - and
in things like horses too not just carnivores - when you peel back the
skin up to and over the back of the head, the area around the eye is
attached quite firmly in many species and, unless you want a full face
skin, this becomes an easy and quick place to cut across. Not so sure
about heavy cuts in region of p3 - but maybe given hyaena anatomy this
is a rather tough area compared with other species?
Sheila
SH-D ArchaeoZoology
http://www.shd-archzoo.co.uk
On 15/02/2012 17:16, Johanna Sigl wrote:
> Dear all,
>
> I was wondering if there are cutmarks to be expected if one skins a
> larger mammal's head and where these would be? Was the head skinned at
> all in ancient times? Would they want to preserve the skin without the
> bone? I was wondering about these questions because I have a maxilla
> from an adult hyena in my material from Aswan which shows hack marks
> behind P3 reaching through the orbit and some small cuts at the
> preserved part of the orbit (zygomatic bone) as well as at the
> dorso-oral rim of the fragment. Would you think this animal was skinned?
>
> I found several references to Binford (1981), Bones : ancient men and
> modern myths. Does someone have a pdf copy of this book by chance?
>
> Thanks in advance.
>
> Best wishes,
>
> Johanna Sigl
>
> PhD candidate
> Institute for Egyptology
> Institute for Paleoanatomy
> LMU Munich
>
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