[Bonetools] Strange cattle bones with carved holes

[Ian Riddler]

Hello Jonny,

I have recorded around 75 examples of axially-perforated cattle metacarpals and c 100 perforated metatarsals from layers of late 7th to 9th century date at Hamwic. Most of them have a single perforation, as in the illlustration, and all of them have been worked, usually by removing the proximal and distal ends of the bone. They have all been cut with a blade and none of them are drilled. I agree with Francois that it is expedient to open up the marrow channel of the bone in this way, but I also suspect that at Hamwic they were perforating the bone in order to put a wooden rod through the proximal end, which provided the bone worker with something to grasp when they were sawing the bone. Your objects look a little more like skates, particularly with the roughening of the surfaces, but the same basic procedure may also have applied: by putting a wooden rod into the bone you make it easier to hold and to work. It could be that some of your bones are the residue of a workshop and they had been prepared for working, but had not reached any further stage.

I’m hoping to put some details of the Hamwic perforated bones into Selena’s forthcoming volume, if all goes well. A couple of them can be seen in the enclosed illustration,

Ian Riddler

From: Johnny Karlsson 
Sent: Friday, November 21, 2014 2:44 PM
To: bonetools at listserv.niif.hu 
Subject: [Bonetools] Strange cattle bones with carved holes

Dear all, 

I hope you can help me with some odd bone objects from medieval Sigtuna in Sweden. 

During a research on medieval bone skates from the town, I and a colleague came across some bones that seem to have another function at least primary. It is only metacarpal bones from cattle and they have two holes at the proximal joint, see photo. The holes are uneven and look carved rather than drilled. Usually the holes reach the medullar cavity. In two cases it is evident that the bones secondary have been used as skates, in two other cases they exhibit transverse striations on the diaphysis (see photo). But the majority of them show no sign of use at all except these two proximal holes. We identified about twenty of them from one particular trench in layers dating to the 12th century, but they do appear in smaller numbers in other parts of town.

Has anyone of you seen something similar? Does anyone know their function?

Thank you in advance,
Johnny Karlsson



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
_______________________________________________
Bonetools mailing list
Bonetools at listserv.niif.hu
https://listserv.niif.hu/mailman/listinfo/bonetools
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://listserv.niif.hu/pipermail/bonetools/attachments/20141121/fc4ba071/attachment-0001.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: SOU31 2003 03bh.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 2831121 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <https://listserv.niif.hu/pipermail/bonetools/attachments/20141121/fc4ba071/attachment-0001.jpg>