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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-GB link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:36.0pt'>Dear Alice,<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:36.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:36.0pt'>Whilst working on my post-doc project in the stores of the Horniman Museum I spotted this novel use of astragali. This double-sided box zither (Horniman Museum, London, accession no. 2010.0.1) was made in 2004 by Sergei Charkov of Khakassia in the Russian Federation. The body of the zither is constructed from larch and fir wood with 12 steel strings on the upper surface and 11 below. The bridges on the upper surface are made from sheep astragali. Each astragalus sits on a leather pad and they seem only to have been modified by drilling a hole to support a strip of longbone in a vertical position. The top of the bone strips have a small notch in which the strings are located. <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:36.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:36.0pt'>I do not know if there is a tradition in this region of using astragali for stringed instrument bridges but if organic strings are used, the bone bridges might be the only surviving component and unlikely to be interpreted as part of a musical instrument.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:36.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:36.0pt'>Any one seen anything like this?<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:36.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:36.0pt'>Would you also like this for the mystery object page on the website?<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:36.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:36.0pt'>All the best,<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:36.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:36.0pt'>Sonia<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:72.0pt'>Dr Sonia O'Connor <span style='font-size:8.0pt'>PhD FSA FIIC ACR Honorary Visiting Fellow, University of York</span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:72.0pt'>Post-doctoral Research Fellow<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:72.0pt'>Archaeological Sciences<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:72.0pt'>Division of AGES, <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:72.0pt'>University of Bradford<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:72.0pt'>Bradford, West Yorkshire, BD7 1DP, UK<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:72.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:72.0pt'>tel 01274 23 6498 (office) 5210 (lab)<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:72.0pt'>fax 01274 23 5210<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div></body></html>