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Whales' Bones of France, Southern Europe, the Middle East and North Africa is a record of whale bone monuments in around 250 locations in France, Portugal (including the Azores and Madeira), Spain (including the Canary Islands), Gibraltar, Monaco, Italy, San Marino, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Greece, Turkey, Lebanon, Israel, Iraq, Kuwait, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Oman, Yemen, Egypt, Libya, Malta (including Gozo), Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco, a total of 28 countries or territories.
It is the fifth volume in a series of six about the practical and decorative uses to which the huge skulls, jawbones, shoulder blades, vertebrae and ribs of the blue, sei, fin, right, minke and sperm whales have been put around the world, from early times to the present day. It also takes account of bones in museum and university collections. Some bones from smaller whales occasionally slip in.
The information has come from antiquarian and historical accounts, from the journals of learned societies; from engravings, paintings, drawings and photographs; from newspapers, letters, diaries, directories, books and poems; from the recollections, memories and records of many people; and from the author's own personal observation. His knowledge of some bones is entirely due to friends and colleagues who have kindly told him about them. He normally likes to visit all the locations mentioned but this has not proved possible with some of the countries covered in Whales' Bones of France, Southern Europe, the Middle East and North Africa. Most of the many bibliographical sources quoted have been personally inspected.
One feature that distinguishes this this volume from its four predecessors is the number of references to bones in ancient times.
