[Bonetools] Bone flute(?) from South-Central Finland

[Tuukka Kumpulainen]

Hello again, and thank you all for the helpful comments! I'll address them below, all at once.

Ian: Yes, the orientation of the holes is problematic to the flute interpretation. 

David: The hinge interpretation is highly intriguing - there certainly are similarities here. However, it seems that this type of bone hinge is a Roman artifact type with a millennia or so between them and the site in question here. Also, nearest find locations seem to be in Central Europe, some 1 000 km south from South-Central Finland. Admittedly, I base this mostly on McGregor (1985) - new data may be available, in the form of AMS dates etc. I must check if there are later, more northern finds of bone hinges, which would strengthen the case.

Renáta: the knife-plane you mentioned is a tool type ethnographically known also from Finland, as well as from neighboring areas. The knife-planes that I have seen have much more wedge-shaped, slanted holes than the artifact in question here. In this fragment the holes have near-perpendicular walls, which would make the plane inoperable.

A dress fastener is certainly a possibility - I wonder if there are published finds of this type with this interpretation? Must look into it.

Jacqueline: Yes, the material of the find may well be antler instead of bone, I shouldn't have used 'bone' as a shorthand for 'osseous'.  (our resident osteologist has not yet studied this find).

I am really interested in the bit (horse gear?) interpretation. Unfortunately, I cannot seem to open the PDF you kindly provided: it shows only a blank page, with the title and contents bars working normally. If the bits really match our find, it is quite possible that this is the right interpretation, as horses were certainly around and important.

Tuukka