[Bonetools] Potential styli, or other kinds of objects? (Early medieval/medieval Scandinavia)

[Lena]

 Dear Heidi, 
Many thanks for the links to the Estonian pipe tampers! They look just like the one from Sigtuna. 
Do you know what time periods the Estonian pipe tampers are? The Sigtuna find came from a layer dated to 1000-1050, so I guess that dating has to be changed. 
You didn't by any chance recognise any of the bone artefacts, or know someone not on the BoneTools list that I can contact? My focus has for so many years been North-western Europe, so when it comes to North-eastern European finds I'm out of my depth.
Best wishes,Lena    On Monday, 13 January 2020, 13:10:20 CET, Heidi Luik <heidi.luik at mail.ee> wrote:  
 
 Dear Lena,

This last artefact, made of iron, presumably comes from much later time period? It seems to be a tool for cleaning a smoking pipe. We have quite similar artefacts in etnographic collections of museums in Estonia, e.g
https://www.muis.ee/museaalview/552655
https://www.muis.ee/museaalview/554217
https://www.muis.ee/museaalview/643185
https://www.muis.ee/museaalview/649910
  I do not know what is the correct name for this tool in English, maybe: pipe tamper. The sharp end was used for cleaning the pipe's bowl and the other, round end for tamping the tobacco in the bowl.

Best wishes,
Heidi

 ----- Reply to message -----
Subject: [Bonetools] Potential styli, or other kinds of objects? (Early medieval/medieval Scandinavia)
Date: P, 12 jaan 2020, 23:37
From:  Lena <lenastrid at yahoo.com>
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>
Dear all, I'm researching literacy in medieval Scandinavia, and have a few artefacts from the town Sigtuna (near Stockholm) that I'm not sure about. They are classified as styli, but other such finds have been identified by clearly optimistic archaeologists (they claimed it was a stylus, I said it was a broken bone point that could just as well be a needle or garment pin as a stylus), so I'm not certain. They don't follow the standard types of styli that I recognise from England, Germany, or other Scandinavian medieval towns. Potentially they are tools of some kind, but of what?  Stylistically, many finds from Sigtuna are similar to east Baltic/Rus artefacts - an area I have very little knowledge of. Finds from other towns nearby such as Uppsala or Stockholm are more similar to those from the Hanseatic area. I've put up photos of the most strange ones here: https://bonesandartefacts.travel.blog/2020/01/04/writing-artefacts-from-sigtuna/ I hope someone here can give me some ideas on what these artefacts are, whether they are styli or something else. And if anyone of you have seen so called knifeblade styli (photo on webpage), please let me know. Best wishes,Lena 
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