Zooarchaeology

[deralte]

It's freezing cold out. I just got back from an extra lecture on the colour of animals in archaeology, done by my zooarchaeology professor, which is the only reason I attended. Now I have less then an hour before I have to decide if I want a cold walk to and from karate tonight for a seminar which I'm not at all sure about, or if I want to skip that and go to a flatwarming party, or stay home and watch the tele. Guess which one is winning.

Quotes from zooarchaeology professor:

On drawing animals - "Now I'll make a nice and graceful, tasty cow."

On drawing bulls - "This is a male. I indicate this with a horn and not something more pornographic."

On domestication - "Domesticity. That's the end of free love for domestic animals."

Comments

[doolabug.livejournal.com]

Your prof is hysterical. There should be more like him in archaeology. God knows I've seen some really interesting topics turned into mind-numbing, eye-sporking snooze fests.

What do you mean color? As in the color the animals were drawn? I'm sure there's all sorts of symbolism tied up in that.

[deralte.livejournal.com]

I wish there were more like him. It seems that there's only allowed to be a few entertaining lecturers per degree so that no one has any monopoly on humour.

Although he did certainly draw on ethnographic evidence in the form of art, he was mostly focused on suggesting that while archaeogically, it's near impossible to determine an animal's colour, archaeologists should always keep in mind the signifigance that colour bears in relation to animals (white horses being more prized for instance). He was very focused on domestication and breeding since that's his specialty.

[doolabug.livejournal.com]

ah, I see. Very interesting. I get off on butchering marks myself. Bones from wrecks tend to be quite well-preserved and you can really see the marks. Found some rat bones on one wreck that showed evidence of cannibalism.

[deralte.livejournal.com]

We were discussing butchering marks in my earlier lecture actually. It's hard to tell if people were say, eating calve's feet if you don't have some butcher marks on those bones.

I would think with underwater archaeology due to the better preservation you might have a much higher chance of identifying an animal's colour than anywhere else.

Found some rat bones on one wreck that showed evidence of cannibalism.
Cool!

[doolabug.livejournal.com]

well, there can be extraordinary preservation, and I've seen leather (like shoe soles) incredibly preserved. I don't know about fur, though - are there other ways to tell color? I can't think of any examples from a submerged context, but I'll look around. What about horses from the frozen Scythian tombs?

[deralte.livejournal.com]

One of the examples he mentioned of land archaeology, where they were actually able to determine cattle/horse colour, was from a Celtic salt mine where I'm assuming the salt preserved samples of fur (he didn't give us many details), in much faded form. From what he was implying though, so long as you have a sample of the fur, you can get an idea of colour by examining it in a lab. I would think frozen horses would also give you an idea of their colour.

I'm trying to recall any sites I've heard of with fur being preserved underwater, but the only thing I can recall is the hair on bog bodies. (A little voice is telling me that there was some fur lining on some of the clothes from the Mary Rose, but I suspect it's wrong.) I'd be interested if you do find a site.

[doolabug.livejournal.com]

hmmm, looked through some of my books before I left work and all I could find re: fur on Mary Rose was wool. They apparently had quite alot of leather and horn and even ivory, but I couldn't find anything directly referencing fur. I brought the fur question up to some of my colleagues and they suggested that mummified Egyptian cats might have fur preserved. No one can think of any submerged sites, but I'll ask one of my profs, who worked quite a bit in Egypt and the Med, to see if she knows of anything there. I'm more familiar with New World stuff.

Fascinating.
*geeks out*