[Bonetools] box zither with astragalus bridges

[Alice Choyke]

Dear Sonia,
 YES - I would dearly like to have these astragalii(box zither) as bone
tool of the month together with the explanation! Thanks for this!

Alice

On Wed, Oct 31, 2012 at 6:52 PM, S O'Connor <S.Oconnor at bradford.ac.uk>wrote:

> Dear Alice,****
>
> ** **
>
> Whilst working on my post-doc project in the stores of the Horniman Museum
> I spotted this novel use of astragali.  This double-sided box zither
> (Horniman Museum, London, accession no. 2010.0.1) was made in 2004 by
> Sergei Charkov of Khakassia in the Russian Federation. The body of the
> zither is constructed from larch and fir wood with  12 steel strings on the
> upper surface and 11 below.  The bridges on the upper surface are made from
> sheep astragali.  Each astragalus sits on a leather pad and they seem only
> to have been modified by drilling a hole to support a strip of longbone in
> a vertical position. The top of the bone strips have a small notch in which
> the strings are located.  ****
>
> ** **
>
> I do not know if there is a tradition in this region of using astragali
> for stringed instrument bridges but if organic strings are used, the bone
> bridges might be the only surviving component and unlikely to be
> interpreted as part of a musical instrument.****
>
> ** **
>
> Any one seen anything like this?****
>
> ** **
>
> Would you also like this for the mystery object page on the website?****
>
> ** **
>
> All the best,****
>
> ** **
>
> Sonia****
>
> ** **
>
> ** **
>
> Dr Sonia O'Connor PhD FSA FIIC ACR Honorary Visiting Fellow, University
> of York****
>
> Post-doctoral Research Fellow****
>
> Archaeological Sciences****
>
> Division of AGES,  ****
>
> University of Bradford****
>
> Bradford, West Yorkshire, BD7 1DP, UK****
>
> ** **
>
> tel 01274 23 6498 (office) 5210 (lab)****
>
> fax 01274 23 5210****
>
> ** **
>
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>
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