[Bonetools] Perforated bird bone

[Burns, Peter]

Dear Julie...you may have a section of a bone flute...we have many here in the collections.

Peter Burns
Zooarchaeology Laboratory
Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology
Harvard University
11 Divinity Avenue
Cambridge,MA 02138 USA
Phone: 617-495-8317
________________________________________
From: bonetools-bounces at listserv.niif.hu [bonetools-bounces at listserv.niif.hu] On Behalf Of Julie Byrd [byrdjulie at gmail.com]
Sent: Thursday, June 23, 2011 2:31 PM
To: bonetools at listserv.niif.hu
Subject: [Bonetools] Perforated bird bone

Dear all,

I have a mystery object for you.  I hope some of you can share some ideas or sources with me about possible functions.

This modified bird bone is from a Middle Archaic (circa 5,000 BP) site in Florida.  During this time groups were fishing, hunting, gathering, and collecting shellfish.  They were somewhat sedentary but had seasonal camps.

The object is intentionally cut on both ends, but one end is broken. It is only 28 mm long and 8 mm wide.  There is a perforated hole close to the unbroken end.  A partial hole (a semi-circle) is bisected by the cut end.  At almost 4 mm, the partial hole is slightly larger than the full hole (just under 3 mm).  Most of the surface has evidence of lithic shaving.

Similar sites have produced hollow bone beads.  Most of the beads are either incised or undecorated.  I don't know of any with asymmetrical perforations like this one.  I have not come across any other archaeologists noting whistles or duck calls from coeval sites, but my leading hypothesis is some type of whistle.  I plan to replicate this object to recreate it without the broken end and then use my guitar tuner to see what pitch it makes as a whistle.  If anyone can lead me to literature on hunting calls or whistles or other simple wind instruments I would appreciate it.

I've attached some pictures.

I hope someone has some ideas!  Thanks.

Julie Byrd