Research On Part Of Animal Skeletons And Surface Marks In The Viewing Pool From The Laogulou Yashu Site Of Chongqing

Laogulou Yashu site of Chongqing(Song dynasty)was one of Top-ten Chinese archaeological discoveries in the year of 2012,and well-preserved ceramics,coins,eaves tiles,stones for war,crucibles and lacquerwares were found.In the site,tamped and bricks-covered building was excavated.The excavation of this site supplement materials for Chongqing city architectural history and will help to research on architectural pattern and plan in Song dynasty and urban residents' daily life.Meantime,this site was in between Song dynasty and Yuan dynasty and belong to anti-Yuan building defense system with Hechuan fishing city.They all were the witness to the War between Song and Yuan.In the Yashu site,we found a lot of animal skeletons and have researched on Anourosorex squamipes,rhinolophus stheno and other small mammals.In the viewing pool of the site(H43),there still are lots of mammal skeletons remaining identification and classification.This time,we have finished the 395 species of skeletons including 39 species of horses(Equus caballus),97 species of oxen(Bubalus bubalus),72 species of goats(Capra aegagrus hircus),174 species of pigs(Sus scrofa)and 13 species of dogs(Canis lupus familiaris).In this article,we will focus on these 5 kinds of mammals,and observe and measure skeletons.It is valuable to analyze cutmarks on the surface of bones.In archaeological study,analysis of bones is an important step.This study will provide economy,resource allocation,environment,protocol and religion information about this site.It will help to judge the development degree of the site.About analysis of bones,we will follow these two mail methods: identification and classification of skeletons and analysis of cutmarks on the surface of bones.Though identification,we will understand that where and how the residents in the site got these mammals and whichpart of meat were their favorite.Meanwhile,though analysis of cutmarks on the bones,we will know about how these cutmarks happened and what tools residents used.In this time,we choose the Zeiss Discovery.V20 Microscope to obverse these small marks in 7.5~15X.We found some marks which are invisible to the naked eye.These marks will be classified and we will conclude the tools may be used and methods to take meat and make bone artifacts.This study to animal skeletons in the viewing pool from Laogulou Yashu site,we have finished identification and classification of middle and large size of mammal bones,and supplement the materials to the report of this site.We found the rule of the residents in the site choosing meat,particularly favor to house,goat,and buffalo meat.This is typical national characteristic.Interestingly we found the bones of dog all were not cut and mainly are intact.This phenomenon indicates that the residents may not like to eat these dogs.About these cutmarks on the bones,we found bones of trunk and extremities,calcaneus,metatarsus and etc.Most of tubular bones only have both ends.These show that the people may like to eat bone marrow.Metapodialias of buffaloes were perfectly cut half though axle wire and spealbone of a pig were cut and retouched to make a shovel.These all indicate that there were craftsmen in the site to make bone artifacts.