Hi Matty - you're going to laugh (I hope!) but the grid is not incised
and is highly likely to be the result of sticky almost concrete mud
adhering to the drying mesh/matting used in the finds shed (been there,
done that!). the 'wormy' tracks are known by me as 'Hacket tunnels'
after the chap describing them - fungi/bacteria around plant roots
munching the calcium and other nutrients as I recall. Intrigued by your
man with holes, and also interested by the horse/military thing.
Sheila
SH-D ArchaeoZoology
http://www.shd-archzoo.co.uk
On 29/12/2014 11:17, Matilda Holmes wrote:
> Hi zooarch listers
> I hope you are all having a good holiday. Typically enough in the last box of the year I have some very strange markings incised on 5 bones. The link below shows the best example (cattle mandible) but the same thing is also present on a smaller fragment of large mammal mandible, a fragment of horse femur, and an unidentified large mammal fragment all from different contexts.
>
> It is a small Roman site largely consisting of ditches plus the burial of a large, strong man with holes in his heel and ball of his foot (possibly having been hung up - any parallels to this???).
>
> At the recent Roman working group meeting a link between retired military veterans and horses was mentioned, does anyone have references for that?
>
> I look forward to receiving any comments on any of the above!!
>
> https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/57661434/m1DSC_1394.jpg
>
> All the best
> Matty
>
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