Abstract
Domestic Fowl in Britain A collection of antiquities from York made by the late William Hewitt of York when excavations were being carried on in High Ousegate in 1903 was acquired by the Municipal Museum, Hull, and has recently been placed on exhibition in the Mortimer Museum. Among the objects in the collection, described with illustrations by Mr. T. Sheppard in the Naturalist of December, were twenty-one needles, principally of bone and occasionally of ivory, varying from 5f in. to 2f in. in length. Some of the bone needles are curved and possibly were made from the ulnar bone of a hare. There were also fifteen pins of bone or ivory, varying in length from 4J in. to 1J in. A hollow tube 5J in. long may be a comb case. It has a deep groove cut in the centre, as though it had been used as a holder. This, and a smaller tube, are made from a mammal bone. With these objects were two hone-stones or sharpeners, with perforations for hanging, a tine of red deer antler, sawn off and sharpened to a square point and an amber pendant. Of the spindle whorls, one of slate is elaborately decorated with concentric rings on the convex side. There are two massive jet rings and a terra-cotta mask with a face and head-dress almost Egyptian in style. Among the bones of pig, ox, red-deer and horse, were two specimens which are the tibia and femur of the domestic fowl, Gallus domesticus. In a recent discussion in the Ibis on the domestic fowl in Britain in pre-Roman times, Dr. P. R. Lowe argues, against the previously accepted view, that it was indigenous. These two bones from York would appear to confirm his observation.
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Research Items. Nature 135, 73–74 (1935). https://doi.org/10.1038/135073a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/135073a0