{"word_count": 454, "character_count": 2927}
Le 41st Congress of the World Association for the History of Veterinary Medicine (WAHVM) aura lieu à l'Imperial College London, du 10 au 13 septembre 2014. Annelise Binois présentera la communication et le poster suivant :"A history of the gelding and tail-docking of lambs in Europe, a confrontation of archaeological and historical sources" (communication orale) Annelise Binois et F. VallatThe castration of male lambs and the tail-docking of female lambs are routine surgeries, performed almost systematically in current European sheep farms. This paper proposes to explore the antiquity and history of such practices through an original confrontation of archaeological and historical sources.Indeed, if the gelding of lambs seems well attested in texts from the Roman era onwards, its actual practical application is very difficult to demonstrate on archaeological artefacts and evidence of it remains controversial. We will present here archaeological sheep remains dated to the 17th or 18th century from Achères, France, and show that a targeted comparison of the sex and age data obtained for each animal may substantiate evidence of practices described historically.Tail-docking is on the contrary very rarely documented prior to the modern period, whether in iconographical or textual sources. The example of the sheep-burial of Teteghem (France, 12th-13th century) will however demonstrate that this practice could have been common in some medieval flocks.Our presentation will also cast a historical light on the motives, the usefulness and the practical procedures of these routine surgical interventions sine the Roman times. "From the womb to the tomb. A medieval case of maternal and foetal mortality following a dystocic calving." (poster)Annelise Binois et M. LançonThis poster presents an archaeological case of dystocic calving having led to the death of both cow and calf. The two animals were found buried together in a single pit on the medieval site of Téteghem-Carlines 3 in northern France, excavated in 2012. The location of the foetal skeleton, wedged in the maternal pelvic canal, leaves little doubt to the cause of both deaths, and the examination of the foetal positioning allows us to diagnose a foetal malposition as the origin of the dystocia. We describe the exact nature of the malposition and discuss the medical options that could have been used to bring about a happier conclusion to the calving. Although dystocia was probably not an uncommon cause of death in archaeological cattle, similar cases are exceedingly rare in the archaeological record. A single other occurrence appears to have been described, on the British Iron Age site of Gussage All Saints , and is presented here. These two cases offer a vivid and touching picture of animal life and death in early farms, and provide valuable information on obstetric knowledge and practices in ancient times.Voir le site du colloque