[Bonetools] Bone toothbrushes

[Ariel Shatil]

Hi everyone, I'm trying again, since Christian tells me the photos didn't
pass through on the last e-mail. I hope this time it works. If it doesn't
work, I apologize for the spam and I sent the images to Christian's
personal e-mail too, so he can upload them to the website.

The brushes in the pictures (bonetool of the month
<https://www.wbrg.net/bonetool-of-the-month-archives/>) were found in the
Temple Mount sifting project. Its a project were tourists, students etc.
sift earth that was illegally excavated out from the mountain when
renovations were made in the lower levels of the mosque there.  Naturally,
being out of their archaeological context, these brushes and the other
finds from the sifting project have very little chronological significance.

In the past few years I did get to see a few such brushes come out from
excavations of 19th-early 20th century contexts. A few have inscriptions on
the handle: "EXTRA FINE ARTS" or "EXTRA FINE ARTS. PARIS", and I believe
they were first imported here by Europeans (American/German colonies,
British soldiers, and of course Jews who came to settle).
[image: B-347201-11071807472.jpg]

In the email some years ago, I also mentioned that some of them have
incised grooves on the back and some of them do not. I learned that these
grooves relate to the method in which the tufts were inserted and attached
to the stock. The brushes with incised grooves had a copper wire drawn
through the grooves to hold the tufts in place. I found this great sketch
on google:
[image: image.png]
The incisions were then filled with something like enamel or cement or some
other pasty material to hide the copper wire and the groove. In some
brushes the filling paste is exactly the same color as the bone and you
can't really know its there. In others the wire and the filling paste is
easier to see.
[image: Wire-drawn-bristle-attachment.jpg]
Then there are these brushes with no grooves. These have a similar system
to attach the tufts, but with very delicate tunnels instead of grooves. The
tunnels are then plugged to hide them and the wires inside; and honestly,
you can't see them unless you know where to look!
[image: image(1).png]
[image: Treppaned-wire-system.jpg]

There is a book by Barbara Mattick which I haven't read (I couldn't find a
copy in Israel), but as its title goes I'm sure it will be a treasure to
anyone who wants to learn bone toothbrushes:  Mattick B. 2009. *A Guide to
Bone Toothbrushes of the 19th and Early 20th Centuries*.
And there is also this nice exhibition at the virtual dentistry
museum: Different
Strokes for Different Folks: A History of the Toothbrush
<http://www.virtualdentalmuseum.org/exhibits/different-strokes-different-folks-history-toothbrush/>

Have a good one,
Ariel




-- 
Ariel Shatil
Institute of Archaeology
The Hebrew University, Jerusalem
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