Measurements of a Group of Adult Female Shetland Sheep Skeletons from a Single Flock: a Baseline for Zooarchaeologists

Abstract

Measurements are presented of the limb bones of 26 adult unimproved Shetland ewes from a single flock. They comprise three cohorts aged 55, 67 and 79 months. All have fully fused limb-bone epiphyses. The 42 measurements include those most commonly taken by zooarchaeologists. Their average values are recommended for use as a standard against which archaeological sheep bone measurements may be compared, for example using Simpson's “log ratio method”. Two examples are presented. One is a comparison with Roman sheep from Owslebury, Hampshire, the other a comparison with mediaeval sheep from Launceston, Cornwall. Both Roman and mediaeval sheep were more slender-boned than the Shetland ewe standard, but appear to have had long-bones of similar or even greater length. The Shetland ewe measurements are also studied with a view to understanding how they are inter-related. Essentially most measurements taken along the same axis— length, widthor depth—are quite highly correlated, but measurements taken in different axes tend to show lower correlation. This means that measurements taken in the same axis can often be pooled but measurements in different axes cannot reliably serve as proxy for one another. Thus the common use of widths as proxy for lengths is misleading. There is some evidence that the ewes which were in “poor” condition are osteometrically smaller than those in “average” or “good” condition. No evidence for osteometric variation between the age-groups could be found.