WORKED BONE

Rebecca Daly

Figure 37. Examples of worked bone. (a) 12238.X1, a flat plaque or plate made from a split large aurochs rib. The rib was flattened, smoothed and polished on both sides. (b) 11802.X15 is about three centimeters long and has three perforations running along the long axis. The perforations do not appear to have been made at the same time, as they were not made using the same techniques: some are unidirectionally perforated and others bidirectionally, and they use different types of drill. Both are highly polished in all sides but show little sign of wear within the perforation. It is tempting to suggest that they might be gaming pieces of some sort, but no evidence exists to suggest that this is the case.

During the 2005 season 210 worked bone items were recorded, both from backlog and from current excavation.  This brings the total of recorded worked bone items to 1451. The worked bone items were mainly of types found in previous seasons, but one new type, a flat plaque or palette, was found as well as a few distinctive but unidentifiable pieces.  Points continued to be the dominant type, accounting for 100 (or 48%) of the total worked bone items, followed in importance by beads at 28 (or 13%), and needles and preforms at 11 (or 5%) each. 

While many of the tools found during the 2005 season are types previously recorded, more types continue to appear.  These new types tended to come from unusual contexts, such as the burned Building 52, or from slightly problematic near surface/near intrusive later burial deposits.  The removal of Building 51 should allow access to whatever remains of Building 52, which should help to clarify the context of these finds.