[Bonetools] Worked Astraguli from Turkmenistan

[Katherine M. Moore]

Dear colleagues:

A few weeks ago we shared an exchange about astraguli (and phalanges)  
that had been worked on one or both edges, and I commented that I was  
familiar with this from work in Bronze Age Turkmenistan. This was  
older work! and it took me a moment to dig out those records. At this  
point, there is no pdf, and I can't even find a computer file for the  
report in which this material appears:

1993  Bone tool technology at Gonur Depe. Information Bulletin  
(Moscow),  vol.19: 218-227

If there is interest, I could produce a pdf using a hard copy. I am  
attaching a drawing of two representative pieces. My manuscript notes  
a cache of 8 and a cache of 17 from room fill contexts at the  
southern, later, massive room block at this site. Single examples were  
also found. Worked and unworked bones were packed together, and sheep  
bones occurred together with those of the less common (probably wild)  
pig. Up to 4mm of bone material had been removed from individual faces  
of these bones. I speculated that they had been used on a softer but  
still abrasive material, but I regret that I am not sure if these  
pieces now are in Turkmenistan or in Moscow, and I have no good  
photographs of the pieces after they had been cleaned.

for context on the American excavations at Gonur:

Moore, K.M., N. Miller, F. Hiebert and R. Meadow 1994  Agriculture and  
herding in the early oasis settlements of  the Oxus Civilization.   
Antiquity 68: 418-427.

Hope this provides a further clue to the variability in these pieces.

best wishes,

Kate Moore

Zooarchaeology Laboratory
University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology
3260 South Street
Philadelphia, PA 19104 USA

-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: Gonur Ground Astraguli.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 232844 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <https://listserv.niif.hu/pipermail/bonetools/attachments/20110822/cae74b82/attachment-0001.jpg>