<table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" border="0" ><tr><td valign="top" style="font: inherit;"><div id="yiv683165480">Dear Herbert,<br>In my opinion, you probably have an unfinished preform (Halbfabrikat) of a horse bit (die s.g. Stangenknebel). An argument in favour of this assumption could be the notch and probably the one further to the center of the object visible on your pic2. Both may have served as guiding marks for the places chosen for perforation. In this line of reasoning it is not unlikely that your piece broke during the first attempt for making a hole at the base, causing its abandonment. Herewith, I attach an article where you could find the production sequence I envisaged for such objects, as well as further references. <br><br>If you are interested to collect more information on similar finds from Early Iron Age in Central Europe, I recommend you start with Boroffka (1998) where you will find a nice typology and distribution maps
based on the state of research by then. Further you will certainly find useful and updated information among the contributions in the excellent volume "Rad und Wagen" by Fansa & Burmeister (2004).<br><br>Best wishes, <br>Petar<br><br>--<br>
Petar Zidarov<br>
Lab of Archaeometry & Experimental Archaeology<br>
Department of Archaeology, New Bulgarian University<br>
21 Montevideo Str., Building 1 - 19/20<br>
BG-1618 Sofia, BULGARIA<br>
<br>
cell phone: +359 898 347 252<br><br>--- On <b>Wed, 11/25/09, Herbert Boehm <i><a9504315@unet.univie.ac.at></i></b> wrote:<br><blockquote style="border-left: 2px solid rgb(16, 16, 255); margin-left: 5px; padding-left: 5px;"><br>From: Herbert Boehm <a9504315@unet.univie.ac.at><br>Subject: [Bonetools] antler artifact request1<br>To: bonetools@listserv.niif.hu<br>Date: Wednesday, November 25, 2009, 8:55 AM<br><br><div class="plainMail">dear all,<br>does anyone know such antler-artifacts? -it was excavated from an early<br>iron age settlement in lower austria. For me, it looks like a part of a<br>more complex composite tool.<br>itīs probably made of a brow tine or bay tine and the surface was<br>carefully carved so the original pearled surface was completely removed.<br>the tip seems to be slightly polished and rounded but doesnīt show signs<br>of heavy use so i believe the main thing to reconstruct the function is<br>the transverse notch carved
out at the opposite end of the tool.<br>Unfortunately, there is for sure a part missing in this area because the<br>"gap" you see (e.g. picture 3)seems to be the result of at least one<br>modern and probably another "antique" crack. as you can see on picture 2<br>and 4 there was obviously no "functional" hole worked in the spongy<br>part-maybe just a slight groove was carved in.<br>iīm grateful about any comments...<br>all the best<br>herbert<br></div><br>-----Inline Attachment Follows-----<br><br><div class="plainMail">_______________________________________________<br>Bonetools mailing list<br><a rel="nofollow">Bonetools@listserv.niif.hu</a><br><a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://listserv.niif.hu/mailman/listinfo/bonetools">https://listserv.niif.hu/mailman/listinfo/bonetools</a><br></div></blockquote></div></td></tr></table><br>