#faunal analysis

submitted all my application materials for field school last night!!! i’ll either be somewhere in europe or china for a month during the summer

currently having a little marathon of archaeology themed media while i study the bone manual and other recommended readings for my program and taking small breaks to play jungle adventures in the sims :)

how’s everyone’s days and semesters going so far?? any big plans for next semester or next year? im about to finish my junior year and can’t believe it!

I found this skull near a shed under a bush next to a few scraps of dusty matted fur. It seemed to be in pretty good condition.

At first I thought it was a canine skull of some sort, but after looking up pictures I wonder if it’s closer in shape to an American badger skull, although maybe a raccoon skull? Maybe five inches long? I’m not sure. What do you think?

hello! i think you're spot on. american badgers and racoons are very hard to distinguish, i cant say for certain but i would guess this is probably a raccoon. the zygomatic arch comes to a sharp point at the natural conclusion of the orbital, rather than being in the middle or back end which is typically more of a feature found in badgers in general. the eye sockets also dont appear to be terribly elongated. the lacrimal duct is pronounced (which is that hole by the front of the eye socket) which is found in several placental mammals & marsupials however racoons it tends to be more of a upside down triangle shape and that seems to match up.

With all of our summer travel, it's been hard to find time to create new weekly artifact features - for that we apologize! The office is also busy analyzing artifact from the Dixon site (Woodbury County) excavations. Cherie Haury-Artz is analyzing the faunal remains and artifacts, and came across this amazing shell bead!

hello tumblr its been a few days. i havent gone to my shifts at the lab or any of my classes this week as i’m healing from wisdom tooth surgery.

speaking of teeth tho, here are some from last weeks shift along w other bones. not sure exactly where/what all of these are from, these werent actually materials i was doing work with they were being washed by our volunteers in order for me to inventory them later on.

labdaylabdaylabday !!!!!

had a short shift today to learn about inventory/collection management stuff along with some of the grad students at my uni. got to see the zooarchaeology/ethnobotany lab and saw a few of these huge skulls (unsure exactly what species they belong to, just assuming some type of deer, i did not work on these) along with trays of different faunal teeth & jaws, seed/soil samples, and bugs. hoping i get to go in again soon and take a closer look at what they have and ask the faunal analysis faculty some bone questions :)

A few days ago I rediscovered it where I had previously found (and left it), and then moved it, so here’s some more recent pictures that have the pine needles cleared out, and with a vertebra (?) that I found alongside it.

just wondering if it is indeed a rabbit skull & if you have any other thoughts on it!

Cherie Haury-Artz has been busy analyzing faunal remains this winter. Thanks to Cherie for this week's feature!