Bones

Irish Stones

During one of my trips in your beautiful country, next to the ruins of a castle I found these fragments of bones.
How can I tell if they are human or animal? They look very old to me.

slowburner

I'm no expert, but they look like sheep bones to me.

dr gonzo

slowburner wrote: »

I'm no expert, but they look like sheep bones to me.

Have to agree with SB. I'm no expert but the tooth in the top right would indicate that these are most likely sheep remains. In saying that though, the middle-left with the articulation socket is a little strange, seems a bit small for a sheep; most likely other animal bones mixed in here too. Where in relation to the castle did you find these incidentally? Their condition doesnt seem inconsistent with a bit of age, so I wonder if they might represent midden material...

Im probably completely wrong on that! Im neither an osteologist or a medievalist so everything I've just told you is assumption.

Thanks for putting them up OP.

Dr Strange

As said before they do not look like human bone fragments but I say this with caution because it's only one image. The upper left bone fragment could be a bit more complicated, the second top left bone looks like it has a cut-mark/butchery mark (the upper fracture line) which would indicate that at least this bone had been prepared for cooking at some stage.

Bones which had been cooked/boiled will have a rather dense and smooth surface (I can't see this from the one image, it would have to be felt rather than observed in any case).

Irish Stones

First of all I apoligize for my long silence, but I couldn't find the time to read the forum, sorry.
Secondly, thanks to all of you!

Dr Gonzo, I found them right outside the walls of a ruinous and almost unaccessible castle in co. Offaly. There were many of them, we just picked a handful. It's been 19 years ago, that castle is fenced off now. I don't if I can tell you what castle it is...
To be honest, we always thought (or liked to think) that these were human bones, remnants of a hard medieval battle for the siege of the castle
But I'm happy all the same now that I know the truth...

If it can be useful to any of you, here is a second photo of the same set of bones. The same bones seen on their reverse side. Do you still think that the top left one is a tooth?



Thanks for your kind attention!

dr gonzo

The top right is undoubtedly a tooth yeh, but I'm not much use to you beyond that. Preusse might be of more use if he pops back in. The pictures are great, thanks for putting them up!

slowburner

dr gonzo wrote: »

In saying that though, the middle-left with the articulation socket is a little strange, seems a bit small for a sheep;

Is it a jaw fragment with a tooth socket?

Dr Strange

slowburner wrote: »

Is it a jaw fragment with a tooth socket?

More likely to be a pelvic fragment of some kind of fowl or rodent.

dr gonzo

Preusse wrote: »

More likely to be a pelvic fragment of some kind of fowl or rodent.

Thats what I had been thinking. I had thought it looked like an articulation point of some kind, likely a limb. But again, I know notzing about faunal remains!

Irish Stones

So, as far as I have understood these sheep (or some small animal) bones that had been butchered and prepared for cooking in very ancient times. Is it correct?
When Dr Gonzo says they might be midden material, do you mean that they could have been buried there many decades ago? Is it possible to say how old are they?
Could the fact that they were around this ruinous castle at a shallow depth in the ground indicate they were cooked and eaten when the castle was inhabitated?