October 2024
Partridge distal tibiotarsus bead, Late Natufian of Hayonim Cave (Upper Galilee, Israel, c. 13,000-11,650 years cal. BP)
Photos: Laurent Davin (Hebrew University of Jerusalem, CNRS UMR TEMPS 8068)
The Natufian culture of the Levant (Late Epipaleolithic, c. 15,000-11,650 years cal. BP), where the first villages of humanity developed, lies at the culmination of sedentarisation and the beginning of neolithisation processes. These transitions to new ways of life and new concepts of relationships with social and natural environments were incremental, requiring and creating new cognitive patterns, one of which, responding to a basic human need, was the creation of individual and collective identities. In the archaeological record, this phenomenon is expressed by a revolution in ornamental practices, a broad-spectrum process that has no comparison, in diversity and quantity, to the previous Levantine prehistoric cultures. Chukar partridge (Alectoris chukar) distal tibiotarsus beads are among these Natufian techno-symbolical innovations.
Hundreds of these body decorations have been discovered in Natufian hamlets, either still arranged in their original position in composite ornaments (e.g., head caps, necklaces, bracelets) deposited in burials (Belfer-Cohen 1991; Edwards 2024) or scattered as isolated artefacts on domestic floors (Le Dosseur & Maréchal 2013; Pichon, 1983). So far in the history of research, these beads represent the primary evidence for the integration of birds into the Natufian symbolic sphere. Archaeozoological studies highlighted that Partridge was the favourite avian prey in several hamlets, and their carcasses were managed uniquely (Munro 2009). Most of the time, the whole bird was brought back to the site. Still, in many cases, the partridge, either male or female, was consumed outside the hamlet, and only their tibiotarsi, valued raw materials, were brought back by hunters. Beyond this particular acquisition scheme, analysis of cut marks suggests that, after having been butchered to consume the meat, these blanks were prepared by removing the extensor tendon from the supratendinal bridge of the distal end to later used as a natural perforation (Yeomans & Richter 2018). Contact use-wear on these blanks suggests that, before any transformation, they were curated, manipulated and maybe kept in bags for a time. The transformation scheme is the simplest of all Natufian bone beads with a low technical investment and a low degree of transformation. The distal end is simply sawn off transversally, sometimes detached by bending, with no further surface treatment except colouration with mineral colourants.
Analysis of the composite ornaments found in the burials reveals their complex biography. We can see that the manufacturers selected the tibiotarsi according to their size, either the largest to make the bracelet of an adult man or the smallest to make the clasp of a child’s necklace (Davin 2019). Variations in sawing, the intensity of use-wear and the types of colourants suggest that, unlike the shell ornaments, these were not formed all at once but rather by the successive accumulation of beads, perhaps according to the rhythm of acquisition. Recent studies (Yeomans & Richter 2018) and ongoing studies on avifauna collections have given a new stimulus to research on the subject, highlighting hundreds of previously unidentified beads and blanks. Preliminary results suggest that the partridge was not the only bird used and that a more comprehensive range of species may have entered the Natufian symbolic sphere in this way. These new data are of paramount importance in understanding the development, during the Neolithic transition of South-West Asia, of symbolic relationships between humans and birds, which reached their apogee following the Natufian, in the hunter-cultivator villages of the PPNA (11,650-10,600 years cal. BP).
References:
• Belfer-Cohen, Anna (1991): Art items from Layer B, Hayonim Cave: a case study of art in a Natufian context. in: Bar-Yosef, Ofer & Valla, Francois R. (eds.): The Natufian Culture in the Levant, International Monographs in Prehistory, 569-588, Ann Arbor
• Davin, Laurent (2019): La parure du Natoufien ancien en contexte funéraire: Reconstitution des chaînes opératoires à Mallaha (Eynan), Israël, Paris
• Le Dosseur, Gaëlle & Maréchal, C. (2013): Bone ornamental elements and decorated objects of the Natufian from Mallaha. in: Bar-Yosef, Ofer & Valla, Francois R. (eds.): The Natufian Foragers in the Levant. Terminal Pleistocene Social Changes in Western Asia, International Monographs in Prehistory: Archaeological Series 19, 293-311, Berlin
• Edwards, P. (2024): New Foundational Burials from the Natufian Site of Wadi Hammeh 27. – Archaeology in Jordan 3(4), 42-44
• Munro, N., (2009): Integrating inter- & intra-site analyses of Epipalaeolithic faunal assemblages from Israel. – Before Farming 2009(1), 1-18
• Pichon, Joëlle (1983): Parures natoufiennes en os de Perdix. – Paléorient 9(1), 91-98
• Yeomans, Lisa & Richter, T. (2018): Exploitation of a Seasonal Resource: Bird Hunting during the Late Natufian at Shubayqa 1. – International Journal of Osteoarchaeology 28(2), 95-108
September 2024
Fragmentary bone carving showing Aphrodite Anadyomene (Egypt, 2nd century A.D. ?)
Furniture decoration with a figure of Aphrodite, bovid humerus, Rodin Museum, Co. 2122, © agence photographique du musée Rodin – Jérome Manoukian.
Discovered in Alexandria and at many other sites in the Nile valley, bone carvings of mythological figures were used in Roman times to decorate both caskets and larger pieces of furniture, such as armaria. The decorative repertoire often included figures from the Dionysian procession, as well as Aphrodite and marine divinities. Products of urban craftsmanship, these carved reliefs were mainly fashioned from long bovine bones, an easily available and inexpensive raw material.
A study of the bone furniture reliefs in the Rodin Museum, to which this piece belongs, has shown that craftsmen truly adapted to the constraints of bone, selecting skeletal parts according to the type of decoration to be produced. Our convex relief was obtained from a cattle right humerus, the epiphyses of which were sawn off, and then divided longitudinally. Small chisels were used to shape the figure of Aphrodite. Marks left by the blade of these tools are still visible on Aphrodite’s body, despite extensive polishing.
The sculptural quality of this relief is quite remarkable. Aphrodite, whose veil was draped over her head, holds or wrings out her hair. Her face, framed by hair parted in two bands and topped with a diadem, showcases great care for detail, such as the animated eyes with perforated pupils. This expressive face is matched by the delicate modelling of her body, with its smooth, bare flesh. The sculptural emphasis of this decoration indicates inspiration from Hellenistic sculptural models, but the elongation of the canon might suggest a work from the 2nd century AD.
Detailed descriptions of the carved bone reliefs in the Rodin Museum can be consulted on the website Rodin et l’art égyptien.
Marie Delassus, Musée du Louvre, Département des arts de Byzance et des Chrétientés en Orient.
References:
• Delassus, Marie (2020): Les appliques de mobilier en os et ivoire dans l’Égypte romaine et byzantine: exemples des collections du musée du Louvre et du musée Rodin. – Bulletin de la société d’archéologie Copte 59, 47-84
• Marangou, Lila (1976): Bone Carvings from Egypt. I. Graeco-Roman Period. Benaki Museum Athens, Tübingen
• Rodziewicz, E. (2016): Ivory and Bone Sculpture in ancient Alexandria, Alexandria
August 2024
A Coin Balance from Jerusalem
Photos: Dafna Gazit, Israel Antiquities Authority.
Coin balances were intended to verify if the coin checked conforms to a certain known standard of weight. Each instrument was designed to check a single coin type (be it a Penny, a Mark, a Dirham or another coin). The method of weighing a single coin to verify its weight appears in the 1st century BC Gaul and later in the 7th-8th centuries Merovingian sites in France and Belgium. Those early measuring devices were made of copper alloy and shaped like a spoon with a suspension loop (Feugère et al. 1996).
The coin balance presented here was found by the Israel Antiquities Authority during excavations at the Western Wall Plaza in Jerusalem. Based on stratigraphy and accompanying finds, it is dated to the end of the 10th century and no later than the first half of the 11th century CE, the time of the Fatimid Dynasty.
It is a small composite instrument made of a stirrup and a balance beam, originally joined together by an iron rivet. The stirrup is made of a sheep/goat metacarpal cut to a length of about 5 cm. Slots or windows were then cut into the bone matrix to fit the balance beam when folded. The balance beam is a small solid rod with a craved square tray at one end and a slightly thicker opposite end. One corner of the tray is missing. The object is decorated with line incisions and ‚dot & circle‘ designs. At the top of the stirrup is a schematic design reminiscent of a face.
Such weighing devices, also made of bone, were known at about the same time in Byzantine Anatolia (MacGregor 1985) and Islamic Syria. After the First Crusade, they spread to Western Europe, especially England. In Europe, they were known as Trebuchets or Tumbrels and appeared first in bone at the end of the 12th century and later, mainly in copper alloys (Galster 1961; Marshall 2002; Mayhew 1975). In the 14th and 15th centuries, such devices were also used in sites of the Golden Horde and the Russian Princedoms on the Ukraine and Russian Steppe (Grigoriev & Zaitsev 2000). In Anatolia, the use of similar devices continued into the 19th century.
Ariel Shatil
References:
• Feugère, Michel / Depeyrot, Georges / Martin, Max (1996): Balances Monétaires à Tare Fixe: Typologie, Métrologie, Interprétation. – Gallia 53, 345-362
• Galster, Georg (1961): En Seiger fra Ålborg. – Kuml 11, 116-124
• Grigoriev, A. B. & Zaytsev, V. V. (2000): Находки Фрагментов Костяных «Монетных Весов» XIV В. В Тульской Области [Finds of Fragments of Bone „Coin Scales“ of the XIV century in Tula region]. in: Anonymus (ed.): Восьмая Всероссийская Нумизматическая Конференция [Eighth All-Russian Numismatic Conference], 130-131, Moscow
• MacGregor, Arthur G. (1985): Coin Balances in the Ashmolean Museum. – Antiquaries Journal 65(2), 439-445
• Marshall, Chris (2002): The Medieval Tumbrel, online-publication
• Mayhew, N. J. (1975): A Tumbrel at the Ashmolean Museum. – Antiquaries Journal 55(2), 394-396
July 2024
Chavín de Huántar (Ancash, Peru) is a major Andean ceremonial center, primarily built and used by the Chavin cultural entity between 1200 and 500 BCE, included within the Formative period in the Central Andes (1800-200 BCE). This Peruvian World Heritage List site is organized around major buildings (platform mounds) surrounding square and circular plazas, and presents a large network of sub-surface structures, like galleries and canals.
In 2016 and 2017, the archaeological excavations conducted by the Chavín de Huántar Archaeological Research and Conservation Program (Programa de Investigación Arqueológica y Conservación Chavín de Huántar), directed by Professor John W. Rick (Stanford University, United States), discovered a group of articulated and sculpted bone pins in a hydraulic underground canal. All the artefacts were ritually fractured and deposited in the canal, but we estimate that the group originally consisted of approximately 87 pieces, now broken into 405 fragments.
Top: four of the articulated bone pins discovered at Chavín de Huántar, in extended position; middle: The same artefacts in flexed position; bottom: drawing of an articulated bone pin with its three sections indicated; photos and drawing Mélanie Ferras.
These minute bone ornaments display a superior technical ability, as each is made from a single piece of bone that has been cut with lithic tools to the desired form composed of three articulated sections: a long, thin needle articulated with a chain of one, two, or three links, itself hinged with a final with a motif-shaped segment. The singularity of these objects can be appreciated with their complex articulation system made with interlocking links. Bone characterization analyses to identify the raw material will be carried out in late 2024.
While these artifacts have the same general configuration with the articulation of the three sections, variability can be seen in: 1) the technical heterogeneity of the articulation system with two different kinds of chains called “flat” and “twisting” chains 2) the presence or absence of surface finishing processes such as heat treatment; and 3) the large range of motifs including in fifteen distinct shape categories.
To better understand those enigmatic and technically complex bone pins, we are developing a multilateral research that includes traceological analyses, technical experiments, isotopic biogeochemical analyses, and 3D reconstructions.
The artefacts are stored in the Chavín National Museum, at Chavín de Huántar, Ancash, Peru.
The research was presented at the 15th meeting of the WBRG in Paris, France.
Mélanie Ferras (UMR 8096 Archéologie des Amériques (ArchAm), Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, CNRS)
References:
• Ferras, Mélanie (2023): Alfileres articulados de Chavín de Huántar, Ancash, Perù. – Arqueológicas 32, 13-38
• Rick, John W. (2017): The Nature of Ritual Space at Chavín de Huántar. in S. Rosenfeld, Sylvana A. & Bautista, Stefanie L. (eds.): Rituals of the Past: Prehispanic and Colonial Case Studies in Andean Archaeology, Boulder, Colorado
• Rosenfeld, Stefanie A. (2023): Bone Craft Production at Chavín de Huántar, Peru. in: Seki, Yuji (ed.): New Perspectives on the Early Formation of the Andean Civilization. Chronology, Interaction, and Social Organization, Senri Ethnological Studies 112, 89-106, Osaka
June 2024
Okimono – Female diver and Octopus
© Associação de Colecções | The Berardo Collection
The Okimono above is depicting a young shell diver erotically entwined with an octopus. A popular subject in Japanese art, female divers have been collecting shells for centuries. Their exotic profession and the fact that they wore red pants while diving made them the subject of numerous erotic fantasies. The Dream of the Fisherman’s Wife, also known as Girl Diver and Octopi, is a woodcut engraving by the Japanese artist Hokusai that is included in Kinoe in Komatsu, a three-volume book of erotic shunga first published in 1814, and became Hokusai’s most famous shunga publication (Welch & Chapell 1999: 144). Shunga is a Japanese term used in netsuke to refer to erotic themes. It literally translates as „spring painting“.
Description provided by Miguel Amigo (BMAD).
When Japanese clothing customs changed in the 19th century, the traditional Netsuke carvings used to fasten items to the Kimono became less demanded. Subsequently, Netsuke carvers began to carve other decorative objects called Okimono (ornament for display). The Okimono above has been carved circa 1900 in Japan from elephant ivory. The name of the carver is unknown, because the signature is illegible.
Dimensions – height 2,4 cm depth 3,2 cm, width 5,1 cm.
Collection Berardo – Museu Arte Deco (BMAD) in Lisboa, Portugal,
inventory number: 143-22.
The Netsuke collection of the BMAD consists of 137 items, carved mainly in elephant ivory, dear antler, wood and bone. Below is another example (inventory no. 143-1).
Álvaro Silva
May 2024
A mysterious bone tool in honour of François Poplin (1943 – 2024)
This month the 15th WBRG Meeting is taking place in Paris and we would like to present an artefact from France as bonetool for May 2024. We’d like to dedicate this artefact to the memory of François Poplin, who sadly passed away on the 20th of April 2024. Given his never ending passion for bone artefacts he certainly would have enjoyed to take part in the conference.
The shape of this object is reminiscent of a leaf or the headstock of a guitar. It is 4.6 cm long and was carved from the diaphysis of the long bone of a large herbivore. The edges of the plate were carved in a highly unsusual way. They are rounded in four semi-circles (three are still in place) with drilled holes below each rounded edge. Each curve is associated with two concentric circles engraved in the bone. Finally, two grooves running lengthwise down the center complete the decoration.
The loop on the back of the plate indicates the object may have attached or fastened to something else. It is 0.5 cm high with straight edges and sloped ends. A 0.4 cm-diameter transverse hole has been drilled in the center. The object may have been fastened to another by a pin or some string running through.
Currently, it appears that this object is rather unique in France, as we have not been able to find another to compare it with. It was found in a context layer containing household refuse, during the excavation of a 2nd-century AD settlement in Meaux (France).
The function of the object is still mysterious and the archaeologists of the Département Histoire de l’Architecture et Archéologie de Paris are grateful for suggestions and comparative items. Please get in touch with.
Lucie Altenburg and Jean-François Goret
April 2024
Hanseatic Signets from Lübeck
Photo Archäologie Lübeck.
The city of Lübeck in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, became an important hub for trading activities since its foundation in the 12th century. From the 13th century onwards it held a central position in the newly founded alliance of North German trading towns, which was to become the Hanseatic League. Trade arrangements need a lot of communication and thus one of the important tools for the Hanseatic merchants were signets used to seal letters with sealing wax, imprinted with the senders seal. They consist of a metal seal with an attached handle, which was frequently made of skeletal materials like bone or ivory.
The signet above It has been found in the city center of Lübeck in a 15th-16th century feature (Falk 1983, 107, 123-124, 126, fig. 1.5-6). It was lathe-turned from red deer (Cervus elaphus) antler. Antler was apparently not the best raw material choice for this tool since the spongious part caused instability and the handle broke at its thinnest point. Below is an assortment of signets with handles of different materials exhibited in the St. Annen Museum in Lübeck.
Hans Christian Küchelmann
Reference:
Falk, Alfred (1983): Knochengeräte des späten Mittelalters und der frühen Neuzeit, Bodenfunde aus Lübeck. – Zeitschrift des Vereins für Lübeckische Geschichte und Altertumskunde 63, 105-128
March 2024
In the Temple of Quetzalcoatl (Teotihuacan, Mexico) at least 139 human bodies were located, sacrificed to celebrate the beginning and end of the construction of the temple (150-250 AD). In these burials were found prestigious objects as necklaces made of shells in the shape of human, canid teeth and worked human maxillae.
Below we can see the grave good of the burial 190F. This burial corresponds to a man of 17-19 years buried with a necklace made with seven maxillae and three human jaws. All belonging to men between 17 and 35 years old. Two of the maxillae seem to correspond with two jaws. Therefore, we would be talking about eight victims to create this ornament. Also, these objects present evidence of pigmentation: green, black and red. Originally, they could have had some kind of pattern or painted drawing.
The people sacrificed and their grave goods are complex and ritual symbols related to the glory of this building of great political and emblematic importance at the time of its construction.
The artefacts are stored in the Arizona State University Teotihuacan Research Laboratory, Teotihuacan, México
Marta Blasco Martín
Photographs taken by: Marta Blasco Martín (PhD Assistant Professor at the University of Valencia, Spain) and Gilberto Pérez Roldán (Profesor at Universidad Autónoma de San Luis Potosí, Mexico).
February 2024
The completely preserved object from the Late Antique City Quarter south of the Church of Mary in Ephesos, Turkey (see below), is very likely a bag or pocket toggle that originally served as a clasp (Pülz 2020, 131f).
The elongated artefact ends in slightly rounded, lug-like ends, each with a large hole. The upper side is polished and decorated with two slightly offset concentric circle-dot ornaments, which are typical early Byzantine decoration. The reverse of the object is left rough. It has been made out of the rib of a large ungulate, possibly cattle (Bos taurus).
The toggle is one of two specimens found in the City Quarter and can be dated between the 5th and 7th centuries AD. Based on the traces of wear on the inner edges of the holes, the research community reconstructs a leather strap that was passed through both holes and hence served as a carrying and fastening strap. Comparisons derive from the Mediterranean region as well as from the Balkans, the Carpathian Basin and Pannonia.
Andrea M. Pülz
Front and back of the pocket toggle from the Late Antique City Quarter in Ephesos (EVH13 3019/3088). Images: J. Kreuzer © ÖAI/ÖAW.
References:
• Pülz, Andrea M. (2020): Byzantinische Kleinfunde aus Ephesos. Ausgewählte Artefakte aus Metall, Bein und Glas, Forschungen in Ephesos 18(1), Wien
• Tobias, B. (2011): Avar kori tarsolyzárók a kárpát-medencében (Awarenzeitliche Taschenverschlüsse in Karpatenbecken). – A Móra Ferenc Múzeum Évkönyve Studia Archaeologica 12, 277–312
• Uenze, S. (1992): Die spätantiken Befestigungen von Sadovec (Bulgarien), Münchner Beiträge zur Vor- und Frühgeschichte 43, München
January 2024
I found this curious bone object while mudlarking on the South bank of the River Thames in September 2023. It looked unusual, so I took it home and after removing some mud and sand I discovered that the end of the hollow bone was plugged with a separate worked bone stopper. This can be removed and slotted back in easily. The main bone itself was identified by François Poplin as a metatarsal long bone from a two-toed animal such as a sheep or deer. I had some great suggestions for its purpose from other members of the WBRG; a small medieval personal ink pot, kohl-pot, a container for needles or a tool, an umbrella handle or a silver nitrate pencil.
Charlie Dixon
