[Bonetools] Mystery bone object

François Poplin poplin at mnhn.fr
Mon Mar 22 10:41:23 CET 2010 

Dear Alice,

please, forward what I am writing here to the others.

Dear Marloes Rijkelijkhuizen, you can understand now what I was feeling 
when I was not able to open your tail-piece pictures !

Now, back to study. This piece belongs to what we call in french 
"coussinets", and with help ot the /Harmsworth's universal encyclopedi/a 
(at home, inherited by my wife-Penelope, who has a part of her family in 
Great Britain), I found the english term : plain bearing. I already 
tried it on Google, and it works !

The material of these pieces is very important to be strong but not hard 
(I would say : soapy) ; they are usually  made of "cast iron, gun-metal, 
brass for those subject to heavy stresses (...) soft so called 
anti-friction alloys, containg tin, lead, zinc, antimony, copper and 
bismuth are prefered", and the french /Larousse du XXe siècle /adds hard 
woods such as almond tree and (fr.) gayac. I am workins right now on the 
use of /Cornus/ wood in antic spears, and this kind of wood (dog-wood), 
so as /Sorbus'/ and others, is famed for making machine pieces (rays of 
weel, teeth of gear wheels). Bone is close (and horn/antler : think to 
cross-bow "nuts" (fr. noyaux d'arbalète, germ. Armbrust), which were 
revolving pieces of bone/antler). As a part of my ancestors were 
water-mill-carpenters, I am more of less acquainted with (or at least 
fond of) that technological field, and a great event in my life was when 
I was standing for the wheels for elevating water at Hama, in Syria, 
maybe 10 m in diameter and totaly wooden made, even the (fr. axe, arbre 
: axis, spindel ?) and plain bearings "singing in the rain", I mean : in 
trickling water and grinding/claiming for some grease...

The fact that striaes "along the rim" were produced claims for an axis 
made of material about the same hardness than bone : hard wood seems to 
be a fair/adequate answer.

You may understand now the importance of the question of the continuous 
or alternate/alternative motion/revolving. A way to decide it is to look 
at the profile of the ditch : is it perfectly circular or with a slope 
more abrupt than the other, as a continuous rotation/grinding could give ?

What was the diameter of the revolving axis ? The ditch seeming more or 
less 6 cm long and (?) 1,5 cm deep (?), it would argues for about 8 cm 
in diameter, which is already strong with an hard wood.

And this excludes the use as a brake rubbig along the rim of a wheel, 
which is markedly bigger in diameter.

Is the opposite side not more or less flattened so as to give a better 
seating ?

They choosed a pecularly strong bone, with thick wall, and used it (1°) 
twice (at one end after the other), what you cannot do with a match..., 
or (2°) do we have to think to a "tween" use, the use of the two ditches 
at the same time, for instance to bear a gearl (??). In that case, the 
question of  uniform/altenative and direction of revolving as shown by 
wear marks  increases a lot...

By what time came the water-mills in the country ?

Your's.


Alice Choyke a écrit :
> The phot was in a WORD file. I decocted a photo for Francois who had 
> trouble opening it - you should see this interesting object so I am 
> sending you a reduced size version.
>
> Alice
>
> On Sun, Mar 21, 2010 at 9:11 AM, Marloes Rijkelijkhuizen 
> <marloesrijkelijkhuizen at hotmail.com 
> <mailto:marloesrijkelijkhuizen at hotmail.com>> wrote:
>
>     I didn't receive any photos..
>      
>     Marloes
>      
>     ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>     Date: Fri, 19 Mar 2010 16:32:02 +0100
>     From: poplin at mnhn.fr <mailto:poplin at mnhn.fr>
>
>     To: bonetools at listserv.niif.hu <mailto:bonetools at listserv.niif.hu>
>     Subject: Re: [Bonetools] Mystery bone object
>
>     Dear Alice,
>
>     I/we cannot open here...
>
>     Alice Choyke a écrit :
>
>         Since Leigh is not on the list you should reply both to her
>         directly and to the list so we can all see what you have to
>         say about Leigh's mystery tools.
>
>         Alice
>
>         On Thu, Mar 18, 2010 at 3:00 PM, Leigh Allen
>         <leigh.allen at oxfordarch.co.uk
>         <mailto:leigh.allen at oxfordarch.co.uk>> wrote:
>
>             Dear All,
>
>             I am new to this site, so let me briefly introduce myself.
>             I am the Finds manager at Oxford Archaeology and have been
>             for the last 20 years !! I also write reports on
>             Medieval/Post Medieval metalwork and worked bone objects.
>             I have an object from a site that we excavated in
>             Winchester that I would like to ask you about (see
>             attached photos). It is from a rubble later dated anywhare
>             from 5th-13th century !
>
>             The cattle metacarpal has a large scoop taken out of the
>             proximal end, the surface is perfectly smooth and very
>             heavily polished but the rest of the bone is not. At the
>             distal end, which is damaged, another scoop has been
>             removed but it is not smoothed or polished to the same
>             degree. Striations in the polished surfaces indicate a
>             longitudinal direction of wear. The wear is so great and
>             so regular it would almost imply that it was machine made.
>
>             Any help would be most gratefully received
>
>             Kind regards
>
>             Leigh Allen
>
>
>             ------
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