Bone Artefacts from Histria
Bone Artefacts from Histria

Summary/Abstract: The paper presents the results of the analysis of recent data regarding an assemblage composed of 19 artefacts retrieved during the 2010 and 2012 archaeological excavations in the Basilica extra muros Sector of the ancient city of Histria (today Istria, Constanţa County, Romania). The objects represent complete and used pieces (tools, adornments and a bone tube) as well as raw material (cattle metapodials and radius). The five artefacts discovered in 2010 represent (probably) raw material for anvil manufacturing (cattle metapodials, radius); another nine pieces discovered in 2012 were used as anvils for manufacturing the toothed iron sickles and were dated back to the II nd century AD. The assemblage also contains four bone hairpins and a bone tube (for preserving needles? or perhaps used as whistle?). In the past six decades, the bone (and antler) anvils have provoked numerous debates relating to their origin, diffusion and (especially) their function. Dated between the V th century BC and the XVIII th century AD, such items seem to be present in two large geographical areas covering the western basin of the Mediterranean Sea and the western and northwestern regions of the Black Sea. The methodology for their research involves the analysis of various parameters: information about the context of their discovery, type, state of preservation, raw material, dimensions, manufacture, traces of use, reshaping, and traces of re-use. The traces of manufacture and use were currently analysed using an optical microscope. Other than stressing the relative rarity of such finds, it is worth emphasising that the study of ancient bone (and antler) anvils from Romania benefits from the advantage of an extended and unitary research while bringing an important documentary contribution to the presence of these controversial artefacts in some central-eastern regions of Europe. The artefacts in question illustrate complex interconnections between traditions extending over a long period of time, ancient crafts and the agrarian economy at the contact between iron technology (iron smelting, manufacture of iron tools), bone and antler processing, the use/re-use of the artefacts that resulted, and the cultivation of cereals in Antiquity in the regions around the Black Sea.

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