[Bonetools] Worked Astraguli from Turkmenistan

[isabelle.sidera at mae.u-paris10.fr]

Dear colleague,

I would love to have a pdf and would like more details of their use wear
traces.
These polished astragalus from sheep and goat, dama, red deer, pig and
boar, cattle and aurochs are common in the Chalcolithic of the Balkans,
but are not used as polishers : no trace of use the flat sides except
manufacturing striations.

Best wishes, Isabelle Sidéra


> 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
>
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