[Bonetools] antler artifact request1

[Alice Choyke]

Dear Petar,
    I cannot resist debating this idea with you. Our bridle ceek pieces
(from Middle Bronze Age through the early Iron Age) are all multi-holed and
more obviously worked and used around the ovoid holes. On the other hand we
have numerous examples from the Middle bronze Age of brow or trez tines
being cut off hollowed out about half-way down the length of the tine with a
notched end. It is another question that no one knows what they are used
for. I have sometimes wondered whether these objects could be used to guard
the fingers when gathering together a bunch of wheat stalks to cut during
harvest BUT this is pure speculation on my part stimulated by a harvesting
tool for this purpose made of wood from Bulgaria (am I being impertinant?) .
However the wooden pieces I saw made in Veliki turnovo had three finger
holes - and then why the notched hole?

Alice

On Thu, Nov 26, 2009 at 10:22 AM, Petar Zidarov <petar.zidarov at yahoo.com>wrote:

> Dear Herbert,
> In my opinion, you probably have an unfinished preform (Halbfabrikat) of a
> horse bit (die s.g. Stangenknebel). An argument in favour of this assumption
> could be the notch and probably the one further to the center of the object
> visible on your pic2. Both may have served as guiding marks for the places
> chosen for perforation. In this line of reasoning it is not unlikely that
> your piece broke during the first attempt for making a hole at the base,
> causing its abandonment. Herewith, I attach an article where you could find
> the production sequence I envisaged for such objects, as well as further
> references.
>
> If you are interested to collect more information on similar finds from
> Early Iron Age in Central Europe, I recommend you start with Boroffka (1998)
> where you will find a nice typology and distribution maps based on the state
> of research by then. Further you will certainly find useful and updated
> information among the contributions in the excellent volume "Rad und Wagen"
> by Fansa & Burmeister (2004).
>
> Best wishes,
> Petar
>
> --
> Petar Zidarov
> Lab of Archaeometry & Experimental Archaeology
> Department of Archaeology, New Bulgarian University
> 21 Montevideo Str., Building 1 - 19/20
> BG-1618 Sofia, BULGARIA
>
> cell phone: +359 898 347 252
>
> --- On *Wed, 11/25/09, Herbert Boehm <a9504315 at unet.univie.ac.at>* wrote:
>
>
> From: Herbert Boehm <a9504315 at unet.univie.ac.at>
> Subject: [Bonetools] antler artifact request1
> To: bonetools at listserv.niif.hu
> Date: Wednesday, November 25, 2009, 8:55 AM
>
> dear all,
> does anyone know such antler-artifacts? -it was excavated from an early
> iron age settlement in lower austria. For me, it looks like a part of a
> more complex composite tool.
> it´s probably made of a brow tine or bay tine and the surface was
>
> carefully carved so the original pearled surface was completely removed.
> the tip seems to be slightly polished and rounded but doesn´t show signs
>
> of heavy use so i believe the main thing to reconstruct the function is
> the transverse notch carved out at the opposite end of the tool.
> Unfortunately, there is for sure a part missing in this area because the
> "gap" you see (e.g. picture 3)seems to be the result of at least one
> modern and probably another "antique" crack. as you can see on picture 2
> and 4 there was obviously no "functional" hole worked in the spongy
> part-maybe just a slight groove was carved in.
> i´m grateful about any comments...
> all the best
> herbert
>
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