[Bonetools] Bone Spearheads and Combat

[trzaska at lineone.net]

Bonjour Noelle et Jean-Marc,

Many thanks for your helpful comments. You could probably tell that I was not terribly happy at the 
idea that they were used in warfare: they would be fairly useless as weapons, although a small 
number of them appear in the Hjortspring hoard in Denmark, where they have sometimes been 
associated with metal weapons. I like the idea of them as tools and I will look at them again in 
terms of their fracture patterns etc.

Remerciements,

Ian Riddler

----Original Message----
From: Noelle.PROVENZANO at cnrs.fr
Date: 18/10/2016 05:17
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: Re: [Bonetools] Bone Spearheads and Combat

Y agree. These objects seem more tools than weapons. As you know, these objects are known 
throughout prehistoric and protohistoric times. Different functions have been identified or 
proposed and the distinctive criteria are numerous. 
It's about antler and not bone, but maybe this paper could give you some indications about the 
fracture patterns shown by weapons. 
Jean-Marc Pétillon J.-M, Plisson, H., Cattelain P - 2016 - Thirty Years of Experimental Research on 
the Breakage Patterns of Stone Age Osseous Points. Overview, Methodological Problems and Current 
Perspectives. R. Iovita & K. Sano (Ed.), Multidisciplinary Approaches to the Study of Stone Age 
Weaponry, Springer, Vertebrate Paleobiology and Paleoanthropology Series, pp. 47-63.
Best,
Noelle

-----Message d'origine-----
De : Bonetools [mailto:bonetools-bounces at listserv.niif.hu] De la part de Jean-Marc Pétillon
Envoyé : lundi 17 octobre 2016 23:02
À : bonetools at listserv.niif.hu
Objet : Re: [Bonetools] Bone Spearheads and Combat

Dear Ian,

any chance of these objects being hafted tools instead of spearheads?
Most of them are not that pointed, and the wide and hollow shaft is likely to hinder penetration a 
lot...

Best,

Jean-Marc


"trzaska at lineone.net" <trzaska at lineone.net> a écrit :

> Dear WBRG,
>
> I have prepared a publication text on Iron Age bone pointed   
> implements from a site at Trumpington,
> Cambridgeshire. The completed volume has been sent to an external   
> referee, and he suggests that
> these objects were used as spearheads, which I would agree with.   
> However, the site has some
> evidence of weapon injuries to individuals, as well as some worked   
> human bone, mainly femurs; and
> he suggests that these implements were used as spearheads in combat.
>
> I wonder what you think about this idea? I enclose my (much more   
> cautious) text here with record
> photographs of the objects, plus another file with some   
> illustrations of the Trumpington material
> as well as the single iron spearhead from the site and another   
> object (bottom left), a whale bone
> spear from Linton, Cambridgeshire. That object was published   
> alongside a group of early Iron Age
> bone objects from the site in 1953, but is it really of early Iron Age date ?
>
> I wonder what you think about this martial interpretation ?
>
> Ian Riddler



--
Jean-Marc Pétillon
CNRS
Laboratoire TRACES - travaux et recherches archéologiques sur les cultures, les espaces et les 
sociétés

Université Toulouse le Mirail
Maison de la recherche
5 allées A. Machado
F-31058 Toulouse

+ 33 (0) 5 61 50 23 63
+ 33 (0) 6 31 07 47 62

Page personnelle :
http://traces.univ-tlse2.fr/petillon-jean-marc-47519.kjsp?RH=annuaire_traces
Page Academia : http://univ-tlse2.academia.edu/JeanMarcPétillon


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