[Bonetools] neolithic archer's rings

[SIDERA Isabelle]

Dear Fotis, 
Thank you for the instructive photos. 

There are a lot of bone rings in European, Mediterranean and Anatolian Early Neolithic of many sizes, models and fabrication type. Some are found on fingers in graves (LBK, Cardial), not always on the first phalanx, but often on the last one. They are often too small to be worn as true decorative rings, as they are considered in the literature. To my knowledge, nobody really examined their wear traces and I am not convinced with this function.
For having made some and worn them, I can tell you bone rings are very fragile and do not last. They break fast.
The idea I published is some of these rings could be used for basketry, as we can see examples in ethnography (see below). The experimentation and use wear analysis I made gave no clear result, but I still work on it.


from fig. 25 : Sidéra I. 2000 Animaux domestiques, bêtes sauvages et objets en matières animales du Rubané au Michelsberg. De l'économie aux symboles, des techniques à la culture. Gallia Préhistoire, 42, p. 108-194.

see also Sidéra I. 2005 Technical data, typological data: a confrontation. In : Luik H., Choyke A.M., Batey C. E., Lougas L. éd. From Hooves to horns, from mollusc to mammoth. Manufacture and use of bone artifacts from Prehistoric Times to the Present. Proceedings of the 4th Meeting of the (ICAZ) Worked Bone Research Group, Tallinn (Estonie), 26 – 31 août 2003, Muinasaja Teadus 15, p. 81-90

If you want these papers, I can send them in pdf.

Best wishes, Isabelle



Le 13 mai 2013 à 12:17, Fotis Ifantidis a écrit :

> I must say that the function of archer's thumb rings is proposed for some of the rings, especially those that are too big to be worn in other than the thumbfingers.
> On the other, I do have in mind many ring examples from my material and elsewhere, where the easy interpreation that some of them are too "uncomfortable" for the fingers is a modern interpretation of function. E.g. the double rings from Hungarian neolihtic or the multiple rings from Catalhoyuk found in graves.
> Bracers are quite different, and in deed, many neolithic objects from the Aegean could also be thought as bracers, such as the multiple-holed boar's tusks plates known from many sites.
> 
> 
> 2013/5/13 Alice Choyke <choyke at ceu.hu>
> For that matter there are also such stone Bell-Beaker 'bracers'. Again, the functional ascription has always bothered me a tiny bit since although it seems reasonable in the Hungarian material given the form of these objects and their location in inhumation graves. Still, form does not always necessarily equal function. 
>  
> Alice
> 
> 
> On Mon, May 13, 2013 at 11:48 AM, trzaska at lineone.net <trzaska at lineone.net> wrote:
> Hello Fotis,
> 
> I haven's seen any antler rings of that date but in Britain we do have stone bracers for archery,
> beautifully catalogued in Ann Woodward and John Hunter, An Examination of Prehistoric Stone Bracers
> from Britain, Oxford (Oxbow Books), 2011. No bone or antler examples of these yet although there
> are examples of a later date.
> 
> 
> 
> I will contact Ann Woodward and see if she has come across any Neolithic antler rings,
> 
> 
> 
> Ian Riddler
> 
> 
> 
> >----Original Message----
> 
> >From: fotisif at gmail.com
> 
> >Date: 13/05/2013 06:56
> 
> >To: "Mailing list for archaeologists of the research group for the study of
> 
> >       object and waste of bone,
> 
> >       antler. ivory and horn."<bonetools at listserv.niif.hu>
> 
> >Subj: [Bonetools] neolithic archer's rings
> 
> >
> 
> >Though for years I had the feeling that some of the bone/antler finger
> 
> >rings from my study material from Neolithic Dispilio (Greece) could be used
> 
> >as archer’s rings, today I am more that certain…
> 
> >
> 
> >Do you know any (published) examples of Neolithic archer’s rings or a
> 
> >general biblio?
> 
> >
> 
> >
> 
> >
> 
> >Best,
> 
> >
> 
> >f.
> 
> >
> 
> >
> 
> >
> 
> >http://auth.academia.edu/FotisIfantidis
> >
> 
> >visualizingneolithic.com <http://www.visualizingneolithic.com>
> >theotheracropolis.com
> 
> >kalaureiainthepresent.org
> >spondylus.wordpress.com
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Isabelle SIDERA (CNRS)
UMR 7055 - MSH René-Ginouvès					
21 Allée de l'Université - 92 023 Nanterre cedex		
tel. 1 46 69 24 48	

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