Tell Me More

We never know what we will find when we excavate. Some objects, such as bowls, blades, or beads, we recognize right away. Some objects, like the one below which was found in the 2019 season, require more research.

Fortunately, when we showed this object to our staff zooarchaeologists, they could tell us quite a lot about it.

This worked piece of bone is a handle that was produced by turning on a lathe. Like wood, bone could be worked on a small lathe to help shape and decorate it. Long, rod-shaped, tapering handles were popular from the Classical period and in use for many hundreds of years. A slight taper is discernible at the end opposite the nodule or peg. This end (right side of photo) looks like it was sawn or cut off, in other words, it does not appear to be a break. Sometimes these handles were sawn at the broken end if enough of the piece was preserved so that they could continue in use. The peg or nodule at the opposite end (left side of photo) would have been used to attach the bone rod, from which the handle was made, to the lathe. After the item was turned, the peg or nodule was cut off. The piece presents a puzzle, since the tail or tang of the metal implement, like a spoon cup, would be attached to the handle by a tail or tang that fit into a slit on the handle and secured with a rivet or small peg. Metal implements were not usually attached to the handle via the nodule used for lathe attachment. So this end of the piece would seem to indicate that the handle was unfinished and was never used since the nodule is still attached. On the other hand, the sawn or cut end (right side of photo) would usually indicate a piece that had broken from use and was ‘tidied’ up so that it could continue to serve as a handle.

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