[Bonetools] antler artifact request1 - whips

Fri Nov 27 12:42:40 CET 2009

Dear Alice,
I am not quite sure if we talk about the same things but your description reminds me of some finds I have encountered in collections from the Middle Ages. These are usually regarded handles for whips for lashing the horses.

So, I would actually expect them to appear along with the horse driven chariots about the same time as the horse bits do. Still, I am curious to see a picture of your finds.

Here is a nice ornamented example of the ones I am thinking of from the Mediaeval period stored in the museum of Pernik, Western Bulgaria.

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 Thu, 11/26/09, Alice Choyke <h13017cho at iif.hu> wrote:

From: Alice Choyke <h13017cho at iif.hu>
Subject: Re: [Bonetools] antler artifact request1
To: "Mailing list for archaeologists of the research group for the study of object and waste of bone, antler. ivory and horn." <bonetools at listserv.niif.hu>
Date: Thursday, November 26, 2009, 11:47 AM

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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