[Bonetools] Burning Antler

[Ben Elliott]

Hi,

Just to add to that Ian, I've encountered the use of localised burning 
in antlerworking from British Mesolithic sites during the course of my 
PhD. This can be seen at two sites from Wales - Splash Point (Rhyll) and 
Goldcliff East (Gwent). The Splash Point antler "mattock" has been 
directly AMS dated to 5636-5336 cal. BC.  Again, very localised burning 
can be observed in association with breakage on both artefacts and 
/debitage/.

Images of these finds can be found in Bell, M (2007) Prehistoric Coastal 
Communities: The Mesolithic in Western Britain. Council for British 
Archaeology Report 149: York - although the original authors don't 
comment specifically on the use of fire in their production.

Hope that is of some interest/relevance!

Ben Elliott

On 14/09/2012 11:33, trzaska at lineone.net wrote:
> 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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