bone

Introduction

“Vikings unwittingly made their swords stronger by trying to imbue them with spirits.
Iron Age Scandinavians only had access to poor quality iron, which put them at a tactical disadvantage against their neighbors.
To strengthen their swords, smiths used the bones of their dead ancestors and animals, hoping to transfer the spirit into their blades.
They couldn't have known that in so doing, they were forging a rudimentary form of steel.“

Matt Davis (2019)

Introduction

This research aimed to define the use of some specific, pointed tools found in the Bronze Age levels of the site of Aradetis Orgora in the Shida Kartli province of Eastern Georgia (Caucasus) (See Figure 1). Five “needles” with different morphological features were unearthed at the site during the recent excavations carried out by the joint GISKAP project of Ca’ Foscari University of Venice in collaboration with the Georgian National Museum (Tbilisi) (Gagoshidze, 2001; 2012; Gagoshidze and Rova, 2015; 2018a; 2018b).

To date, archaeologists often use a typological approach to assess the functions of bone artefacts from the Roman period. In some of these assigned typological groups, certain artefacts do not have a clear definition. This study aimed to assess whether use-wear analysis combined with experimental archaeology could be applied to bone artefacts from the Roman period as ...

Bone fishhooks have occasionally been retrieved from bone assemblages at coastal sites dating to the Middle Mesolithic phase (8300-6300 cal. BC) in Southern Norway and Western Sweden. Several studies of fishhooks from these sites have been undertaken in recent years. Fishhooks can be manufactured from different osseous materials, including antler, ribs and shafts of different long bones...

Rondelles are thin, circular disc cut-outs typically made from the blade of the scapula of medium sized ungulates, such as horse or cervid. These are primarily associated with the Late Upper Palaeolithic Magdalenian and focused around northwest Europe. Rondelles are frequently...

This article is dedicated to the reconstruction I’ve done in 2017 of a Picenian cloack clasp which is a pretty unique find. It has been found in a prince’s grave dating back to the early 7th Century b.C. and is considered a rare find because only a few similar items have been found in Central Italy, and because of the rare use of amber decorations and bronze plates, that makes this find a true masterpiece...

The Society of Experimental Prehistoric Archaeology (SEPA, www.keap.umk.pl) is an organisation affiliated with the Nicolaus Copernicus University’s Institute of Archaeology since 1998. The first academic supervisor of SEPA was Jolanta Małecka-Kukawka, now led by Grzegorz Osipowicz...

During archaeological excavations, burned bones are often found as a result of cremation, cooking or accidental fire. Even though the bones are burned, their elemental composition might still hold information about diet, habitat and health history in the past.

From the Neolithic period comes a whole range of various kinds of artefacts made of antler (for example axes, hammer-adzes), distinguished by the presence of a large hole (diameter over 2 cm) in their structure. With time, archaeologists started to wonder about possible ways of producing holes of this type...