[Bonetools] Strange bone artifact from Syria

[Sonia O'Connor]

My guess is that it is a modern piece.  The working of compact cetacean bone has a long tradition going back to the paleolithic. The very open texture of this material, particularly of the interior, does not make it very useful for functional objects or for fine carving but there are plenty of worked 'objects', often of indeterminate purpose, from coastal archaeological sites where whales commonly beached or whaling was undertaken. This carving does not look like it has been buried or that it is of any great age. Most of the  modern pieces I have seen are from Alaska and were sold to tourists but these generally depict local deities or folklore. There is a very fine collection of contemporary sculptures in whale bone (jaw, vertebrae etc.) in the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto.

Sonia

Dr Sonia O'Connor PhD FSA FIIC ACR
Honorary Visiting Researcher
Department of Archaeological and Forensic Sciences
University of Bradford


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From: Bonetools <bonetools-bounces at listserv.niif.hu> on behalf of Lorant Vass <v_lorant at yahoo.com>
Sent: 02 December 2019 13:56
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>
Subject: Re: [Bonetools] Strange bone artifact from Syria

Dear Jean-Marc and Sonia,

Thank you very much.
That was a great surprise for me.
Is there any particular historical period or population, group which produced artifacts from whale bone? Sorry for this amateur question, but I am studying Roman bone objects, and I have never met a whale bone artifact before. 😀

Thank you!

All the best, L.V.
On 2 Dec 2019, 13:45 +0100, Sonia O'Connor <S.Oconnor at bradford.ac.uk>, wrote:
it is cetacean jaw bone.  probably on of the larger baleen bearing whales.

Sonia

Dr Sonia O'Connor PhD FSA FIIC ACR
Honorary Visiting Researcher
Department of Archaeological and Forensic Sciences
University of Bradford


________________________________
From: Bonetools <bonetools-bounces at listserv.niif.hu> on behalf of Lóránt Vass <v_lorant at yahoo.com>
Sent: 01 December 2019 23:01
To: Antler. Ivory and Horn. Mailing List for Archaeologists of the Research Group for the Study of Object and Waste of Bone <bonetools at listserv.niif.hu>
Subject: [Bonetools] Strange bone artifact from Syria

Dear members,

I got some photos with a very strange bone object from Syria. One of my Syrian students sent me these pictures. According to her, the sculpture belongs to a friend who does not know anything about the place it has been found. Actually, there is no information  about the find context or chronology at all.
It is not even sure it is an ancient artifact, however, the features of the sculpted portrait seems of ancient Greek-Roman style. Have anyone seen anything similar to this? Does anyone know the function and the raw material of this object?

Thank you very much for your help!

All the best,
Lóránt Vass


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