[Bonetools] bone tool of the month

[Genevieve Lemoine]

There is a lot of seal in Greenland and other Arctic sites, but not all that much of it is worked. That said, the combs do look like some sort of sea mammal bone rather than antler.

Alice, I have some nice bone tools - would you like me to post them to the list, or send them directly to you?

Genny


--
Genevieve LeMoine
Curator/Registrar
The Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum and Arctic Studies Center
Bowdoin College
9500 College Station
Brunswick, Maine 04011-8495

207-725-3304  voice
207-725-3499  fax

glemoine at bowdoin.edu


http://academic.bowdoin.edu/arcticmuseum
http://www.ilapweb.info



On 10/27/09 9:15 AM, "Vicki Szabo" <szabo at email.wcu.edu> wrote:

Hi Anne and all - so much seal in Greenland sites, but I'm not sure who has analyzed it, and I think - just first impression - that it's mostly waste rather than worked. But, still worth a look.

Vicki
________________________________________
From: bonetools-bounces at listserv.niif.hu [bonetools-bounces at listserv.niif.hu] On Behalf Of Anne Brundle [Anne.brundle at orkney.gov.uk]
Sent: Tuesday, October 27, 2009 12:55 PM
To: Mailing list for archaeologists of the research group for thestudy of       object and waste of bone,       antler. ivory and horn.
Subject: Re: [Bonetools] bone tool of the month

Hi Alice,

I'd be delighted for our picture to be an 'object of the month'! Thank you.

We don't get many artefacts identified as seal bone at all, but is there a tendency to see what we're looking for? The most famous published 'seal' artefact from Orkney is the Futhark pendant from the Brough of Birsay (Curle 1982) - except it was re-identified at the National Museum in the 1990s as a bear tooth.  : )


There isn't much seal bone in the zooarchaeological record either. A quick glance through the books on my desk shows that the massive excavation of the Iron Age settlement at Howe produced only five identified seal bones, all from young animals. The Brough Road excavations in Birsay had seal bone through all the phases 'but in small numbers only' and the Beachview excavations, also in Birsay, had only very occasional seal.


A review of the bones used for artefacts would be an interesting project for someone - Vicki Szabo mentioned in her book that small artefacts of cortical whalebone may be classified as general mammal, and thus under-represented in the literature. I look forward to the research requests - but, sorry, we have no money!

Best wishes
Anne

________________________________
From: bonetools-bounces at listserv.niif.hu [mailto:bonetools-bounces at listserv.niif.hu] On Behalf Of Alice Choyke
Sent: 27 October 2009 12:04
To: aesr05 at ukgateway.net; Mailing list for archaeologists of the research group for the study ofobject and waste of bone,antler. ivory and horn.
Subject: Re: [Bonetools] bone tool of the month

Anne -Clearly it would be very worthwhile trying to identify species and skeletal element for these combs more closely. How much seal bone is used in the Orkneys anyway?

Alice
On Tue, Oct 27, 2009 at 9:19 AM, aesr05 at ukgateway.net<mailto:aesr05 at ukgateway.net> <aesr05 at ukgateway.net<mailto:aesr05 at ukgateway.net>> wrote:
I hesitate to extend this discussion, but wonder could it be seal bone??? Colour, texture looks good for that. Colleen



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--
Genevieve LeMoine
Curator/Registrar
The Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum and Arctic Studies Center
Bowdoin College
9500 College Station
Brunswick, Maine 04011-8495

207-725-3304  voice
207-725-3499  fax

glemoine at bowdoin.edu


http://academic.bowdoin.edu/arcticmuseum
http://www.ilapweb.info

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