[Bonetools] Burning Antler

[trzaska at lineone.net]

Fire blackening of antler to assist in removing the tines has been suggested on a number occasions 
in England, mainly for neolithic material. The illustrations here are not very good (my apologies 
!) but they show an antler from a neolithic context, recovered from an important site at 
Trumpington in Cambridgeshire, which has been fire blackened around the junction with the trez 
tine, and also along the beam. The suggestion is that localised charring of antler, undertaken 
probably with a wooden brand, was commonly used as a working technique at this time (Clutton-Brock 
1984, 26; Serjeantson and Gardiner 1995, 420-1).  It made the antler more brittle and easier to 
separate.  The same technique can also be seen on some Neolithic bone objects (Senepart 1985, 
39).  



These are old studies of course but they might be useful. Trumpington will be published in a few 
years time.



Clutton-Brock, J., 1984	Neolithic Antler Picks from Grimes Graves, Norfolk and Durrington Walls, 
Wiltshire: a Biometrical Analysis, London



Senepart, I., 1985	L’industrie osseuse cardiale de Provence, in H. Camps-Fabrer, L’industrie en Os 
et Bois de Cervidés durant le Néolithique et l’Age des Métaux 3, Paris, 37-43



Serjeantson, D. and Gardiner, J., 1995	Antler Implements and Ox Scapulae Shovels and Animal Bone, 
in R. M. J. Cleal, K. E. Walker and R. Montague, Stonehenge and its Landscape: Twentieth Century 
Excavations, English Heritage Archaeological Report 10, London, 414-30 and 437-51



Ian Riddler
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