|
In a 1986 excavation report of the Mawaki Site, we have
indicated that the dolphin bones have cut marks on their mandibles, scapulae,
lumbar vertebrea and coccyges, but rarely or not at all on their other
bones, which was not the case with deers or wild boars, and a study of
the butchering and utilization of dolphins was included there. My present
report deals with a result of our further investigation on it.
1. No tanjible proofs of a dolphin cerebrum diet were found at the Mawaki
Site. The fact that there are several crania restored in their original
state shows the existence of individuals with cerebra not extracted from
the crania. But there is also some circumstancial evidence of a cerebrum
diet in other cases at the site.
2. Cut marks were not recognized at all on Condylus occipitalis
or the atlases (fused with axes) of the dolphins from the Mawaki Site,
but they were on five of twenty-three atlases from the Asahi Shell Mound.
Skillful butchers at Mawaki could have separated the head from the body
between an atlas and Condylus occipitalis with little damage to
the bones.
3. Cut marks were recognized on only one (0.8%) of 132 dolphin humeri from
the Mawaki Site in contrast with 6 (3.2%) of 190 scapulae with cavitas
glenoidalis. On the 141 radii and the 119 ulnae were none of them. The
pectoral fins must have been cut off from the scapulae.
( Revised for my web-site after Journal of the Anthropological Society
of Nippon, Vol.100, No.2:233, 1992)
|