Basin Depot 2000 - Bones

These bones are mostly of large mammals. A cow or moose vertebra (middle right) has a butchering cut just off centre, made with a cleaver or axe to halve the carcass. The small jaws belong to a cottontail rabbit that may have been hunted or trapped locally, and a cat.

The top of this cow thigh (upper right) is only partly fused. Since we know approximately when the bone end fuses to the shaft, we know this cow was about 3.5 years old when it was slaughtered - a common age for marketing beef cattle.

Beef, mutton, and pork may have been consumed fresh or salted in barrels. In the days before refrigerators, preserving meat by brining or smoking allowed people to eat meat outside the autumn slaughtering season.

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