<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class="">Dear list,<div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">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.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Does anyone in the list have any suggestions for comparative objects and maybe a functional interpretation?</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Best wishes.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Christian</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">References:</div><div class=""><div class=""># Deschler-Erb, Sabine (1998): Römische Beinartefakte aus Augusta Raurica – Rohmaterial, Technologie und Chronologie, Forschungen in Augst 27/1, Band 1: Text und Tafeln, Augst</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""># 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</div><div class="">
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