Osteological study of Sus scrofa relics excavated from the Gasan-Ri archaeological site in Jinju

Abstract

The natural relics excavated from the archeological site reveal the life, hunting, fishing, and gathering of mankind at the time, and the animal bones excavated from the remains become valuable data for the study of geography and bone diseases at the time. This study investi gated the morphological structure, size, and osteometry of Sus scrofa bones excavated from the well area of the Gasan-Ri archaeological site in Jinju, presumed to be a relic of the Three Kingdoms period. The total weight of identified animal bones was 975.30 g and the number of bone fragments was 447. Among these 447 animal bones identified, the bone weight of Sus scrofa was 468.00 g (47.99%) and the number of bone fragments was 204 (45.64%). These 204 bone fragments of Sus scrofa consisted of 35 skulls (17.16%), 94 vertebrate ax ial skeletons (46.08%), 28 forelimb bones (13.73%), and 47 hindlimb bones (23.04%). The bones of Sus scrofa have been identified as those of two animals. The estimated age of these bones of Sus scrofa was 5-7 weeks. There was a fracture presumably caused by an artificial blow to the parietal bone located near the bregma in the skull.