Keep finding bones while digging at new home

[Boness24]

So I moved into a new house last autumn. Now spring is here I’ve started digging in the garden to plant things. I keep finding bones; I’m sure they’re probably animal bones of some kind but my overthinking mind is getting concerned with how many I’m finding! (Ridiculous most probably).
I do know that they are most likely animal remains from buried pets etc, but how can I find out what animal they are from? I have found many bones over the last month but discarded them.
I’ll attach a photo of the ones found today. Big dog?

Happy to hear they look like cow bones :) very reassuring.

I think between the sheer amount of bones I’ve dug up combined with stories from my neighbour I got a bit dramatic!

I am currently at uni, not sure whether they have an archaeology department but will check.

They're not human at least. I'm guessing treats for the big dog

Definitely not human so Emilia Fox won't be popping round any time soon.

I’ve never had a dog in my defence, so have no idea what the bones they eat look like

Someone I knew had a house built on former farmland and the workmen found a whole horse buried on the site.

Disappointing

Yeah agree after washing they don't look like tree roots. Just bovine bones 🫢

I would have said the same for both. Also an archaeologist many years ago.

@DrJoanAllenby you've just made me snort my drink down my nose laughing, the previous owners had a very dark sense of humour

😅

@Boness24

you do now!

Dinosaur?

its true that you learn something new every day!

I would have preferred that

I had the same in our garden, freaked me out at first. Assumed it was to do with the family of foxes living behind the garden and using it as a thorough fare to access the local area.

I think we do have a lot of foxes round here. Keep finding excrement in the garden that a cat is definitely not capable of.

If you're finding a lot of chunky bones but no skulls (which would be the best bit for ID I should think) then maybe they're dog bones as in beef bones for a dog to chew on?

Our old dog used to get bones from the butcher and he would always always bury them. In fact anything he considered to be too good a treat was wasted on him,as he immediately buried it. Think maybe your previous owners dog has done the same?

I think that’s probably the case. I’ll be prepared now for new finds!

DH who is a butcher thinks the main body of the bone looks too small to be from a cow, though says the scale is tricky to judge. He does however think they are definitely animal bones so no need to worry.

There have been several threads over the years about bones being dug up, including one confirmed case of human bones. They were really old though so only the local archaeologists were interested.

Stupid question but how can you tell that they definitely aren’t human?

I'd imagine so. If there's lots of them the dog was probably burying them every week