[Bonetools] Roman Iron Age "button"

[Hans Christian Küchelmann]

Dear list,

the small double perforated disc (ca. 10 mm diameter) on the photo bone below has recently been found within a Roman Iron Age cremation burial in Northern Germany. It looks astonishingly like a modern button, but since it has been found in the middle of the cremated bones in a so-called "Hemmoorer Eimer“ a modern intrusion can be excluded. I checked around a bit, but could not find any comparative items with two holes from that time period. I know of similarly sized and shaped Roman tesserae with five holes found in Augst and Bad Wimpfen, which also look similar to modern buttons (Deschler-Erb 147-153, 379, Tafel 27, Kat.-Nr. 1886-1890; Frey 1989, 181, fig. 56), but I have never seen an object like this.

Does anyone in the list have any suggestions for comparative objects and maybe a functional interpretation?

Best wishes.

Christian

References:
# Deschler-Erb, Sabine (1998): Römische Beinartefakte aus Augusta Raurica – Rohmaterial, Technologie und Chronologie, Forschungen in Augst 27/1, Band 1: Text und Tafeln, Augst

# Frey, Sigrid (1989): Osteologische Untersuchungen an Schlacht- und Siedlungsabfällen aus dem römischen Vicus von Bad Wimpfen, Forschungen und Berichte zur Vor- und Frühgeschichte in Baden-Württemberg 39, München
-- 
Knochenarbeit 

Hans Christian Küchelmann 

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