<div>Dear Julie,</div><div> What do you think the chances are that this was a multi-holed flute that broke and was remodified into some kind of a whistle? And do you know what species of bird the object was made from?</div>
<div> </div><div>Alice<br><br></div><div class="gmail_quote">On Thu, Jun 23, 2011 at 8:31 PM, Julie Byrd <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:byrdjulie@gmail.com">byrdjulie@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex; border-left-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-left-width: 1px; border-left-style: solid;" class="gmail_quote">
Dear all,<br><br>I have a mystery object for you. I hope some of you can share some ideas or sources with me about possible functions. <br><br>This modified bird bone is from a Middle Archaic (circa 5,000 BP) site
in Florida. During this time groups were fishing, hunting, gathering,
and collecting shellfish. They were somewhat sedentary but had seasonal
camps. <br><br>The object is intentionally cut on both ends, but one end is broken.
It is only 28 mm long and 8 mm wide. There is a perforated hole close to the
unbroken end. A partial hole (a semi-circle) is bisected by the cut
end. At almost 4 mm, the partial hole is slightly larger than the full
hole (just under 3 mm). Most of the surface has evidence of lithic
shaving.<br>
<br>Similar sites have produced hollow bone beads. Most of the beads
are either incised or undecorated. I don't know of any with
asymmetrical perforations like this one. I have not come across any other
archaeologists noting whistles or duck calls from coeval sites, but my leading hypothesis is some type of whistle. I plan
to replicate this object to recreate it without the broken end and then
use my guitar tuner to see what pitch it makes as a whistle. If anyone
can lead me to literature on hunting calls or whistles or other simple wind instruments I would
appreciate it.<br>
<br>I've attached some pictures. <br><br>I hope someone has some ideas! Thanks.<br><font color="#888888"><font color="#888888"><br>Julie Byrd</font>
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