Bonetool of the Month Archives | Worked Bone Research Group

April 2025

Carnet de bal (dance booklet) made of bone and ivory (19th century)
Here’s an almost complete 19th century handcrafted object that will become part of the ethnographic collections of the Musée de l’Homme. According to the owner’s family history, it dates back to the Tsarist times, when upper-class women used to write down the names of the dancers to whom they reserved their next dances. This “Bal” book, as written in French on the ivory cover, is made up of 5 bone cards, each for the five expected dances: waltz, polka, mazurka, quadrille and galop. The back is probably made of bone to implement the metallic fastening system that held the missing graphite tip in place. Suspended from a ring and riveted in such a way that the silk passementerie opened the rough bone blades like a fan, the whole was used to hang on the ladies‘ ring finger.
So chic, isn’t it?
Éva David

March 2025

Two human bone koauau (flute)

The old Maori flute from a femur is from early 19th century, carved with iron tools. After the family member died, 12 to 18 months later the skeleton was cleaned / scraped and sometimes painted with kokowai (red ochre paint), then a femur was taken to be turned into a flute. The remaining bones would be hidden away in a cave or hollow tree. This was a way to keep the memory of the deceased and history alive. The flute would be considered very tapu (sacred). On the other hand an enemy’s femur could be taken for a flute as an insult and ongoing irritation to that tribe, probably of a famous warrior so the stories of his death and battle would be passed down. Often that flute would be ransomed back to bring peace between the two tribes.
The contemporary flute is from a Maori who lost a leg in a forestry accident. He asked me to carve a flute from his femur so he had a memory of the occasion and something to leave his family passing on his stories.
Dimensions: old flute 185 mm long, contemporary flute 160 mm long.

All my carving is executed with hand gravers or burins, which I make from tool steel. Basically, my gravers are copies of Neolithic flint gravers with short wood handles based on examples from Danish Museum collections. So I carry on the carving skills, techniques and philosophy of my ancestors.
Owen Mapp

February 2025

Above illustrated is a giant sloth tooth (Eremotherium laurillardi) from the Pleistocene of Brazil (dated to ca. 14-13,000 years ago). It was found in Sergipe state, northeast of Brazil, in a „tank“ fossiliferous deposit. Its current shape (triangular) is completely different from the original shape of ground sloth teeth (cylindrical). In addition, one side is polished and presents several marks that we interpret as anthropogenic due to their clusters of similarly sized scratches, following the same orientation, especially around the curvature of the tooth.
Thais Rabito Pansani

References:
• Pansani, Thaís Rabito / Bertrand, Loïc / Pobiner, Briana / Behrensmeyer, Anna Kay / Asevedo, Lidiane / Thoury, Mathieu / Araújo-Júnior, Hermínio I. / Schröder, Sebastian / King, Andrew / Pacheco, Mírian L. A. F. / Dantas, Mário A. T. (2024): Anthropogenic modification of a giant ground sloth tooth from Brazil supported by a multi-disciplinary approach. – Scientific Reports 14 (19770)

January 2025

Early medieval saddle decoration made of antler plates from a woman’s grave in Bavaria

In the mid-1990s, a looted chamber grave of a woman buried with her mule was discovered in Aufhausen/Bergham (Erding, Germany). A separate compartment of the burial chamber was disturbed but escaped robbery. In it, the almost intact bone fittings of a saddle bow were found in situ, as well as other fragments of bone fittings belonging to the saddle. The finds are complemented by a richly decorated snaffle bit made of iron and bronze, a number of magnificent bronze and silver fittings from the bridle and other horse tack, as well as iron buckles from saddle girths and bridle. The metal fittings of Frankish origin allow dating from the late 7th to early 8th century.

At the beginning of the 2020s, these finds could be examined more closely, which led to the conclusion that the lady was buried with not just one but two saddles both decorated with antler plates from red deer. The dimensions of the fittings on the saddle’s front arch (fig. 1) as well as the corresponding fragments of the rear arch and the wings belonging to this saddle conclusively show that this is a women’s sideways saddle for a mule (fig. 2-3). The fittings of the second saddle indicate a conventional riding saddle in the style of the steppe nomads (fig. 4). Whereas the decorations on the latter saddle represent a variant of the interlace ornament common in Avar as well as Old Turkish culture, the combination of interlace ornament and floral patterns on the women’s saddle is puzzling. It is assumed that it originated „between Friuli and Lake Balaton“.

Bone fittings on saddles have a long tradition in the equestrian nomadic environment and are mainly known from the Avars in Merovingian Europe. They are a rare find in Western Europe, in this case possibly helped by the calcareous alpine “alm”-soil in which the grave was dug, which is favourable for preservation.

Dimensions of the front saddlebow: height 30 cm, depth 0,1-0,2 cm, width 30 cm.
Bettina Keil-Steentjes

Fig. 1: front bow of the sideways saddle; fig. 2: reconstruction of the sideways saddle; fig. 3: in the sideways saddle, both legs of the rider are on one side of the mount; fig.4: antler plates of the second saddle with interlacing pattern (Photos: Harald Krause, Museum Erding).

References:
• Keil-Steentjes, Bettina & Päffgen, Bernd (2024): Das Reitzeug aus dem spätmerowingerzeitlichen Kammergrab der Dame von Aufhausen/Bergham (Stadt Erding). – Archäologisches Korrespondenzblatt 54, 51-74
• Paulus, Christof / Nadler, Michael / Ketzer, Christine / Andres, Won / Handle-Schubert, Elisabeth / Jörgensen, Bent / Lichtl, Julia / Scherrer, Andreas / Zödi-Schmidt, Natascha (2024): Tassilo, Korbinian und der Bär. Bayern im frühen Mittelalter. – Veröffentlichungen zur Bayerischen Geschichte und Kultur 73, 196-199