Are many Vendel and Viking Period gaming pieces made of whale bone (original) (raw)
Related papers
Crafting Bone Tools in Mesolithic Norway: A Regional Eastern-Related Know-How (2015)
This article focuses on the production of bone tools during the seventh millennium cal BC. A large number of fishhooks and waste from fishhook production have been found at the sites of Sævarhelleren and Viste cave, in western Norway. The data have been studied by means of the chaîne opératoire concept, meaning that the artefacts are described and analysed in order to identify the different steps in the production process and to characterize the technology in a comparative northern European perspective. The result shows that bone tools and fishhooks were crafted in a similar way at these two sites, with techniques that were mastered by all makers, and in close relation to stone tool production. When compared to other contemporaneous sites, the technology resembles the Mesolithic bone technology of north-eastern Europe. It thus contradicts the hypothesis of a strong connection between western Norway and the Maglemose cultural group in southern Scandinavia and northern Germany.
Crafting Bone Tools in Mesolithic Norway: A Regional Eastern-Related Know-How
European Journal of Archaeology, 2015
This article focuses on the production of bone tools during the seventh millennium cal BC. A large number of fishhooks and waste from fishhook production have been found at the sites of Sævarhelleren and Viste cave, in western Norway. The data have been studied by means of the chaîne opératoire concept, meaning that the artefacts are described and analysed in order to identify the different steps in the production process and to characterize the technology in a comparative northern European perspective. The result shows that bone tools and fishhooks were crafted in a similar way at these two sites, with techniques that were mastered by all makers, and in close relation to stone tool production. When compared to other contemporaneous sites, the technology resembles the Mesolithic bone technology of north-eastern Europe. It thus contradicts the hypothesis of a strong connection between western Norway and the Maglemose cultural group in southern Scandinavia and northern Germany.
Hnefatafl, hazard, chess. Archaeological testimony of gaming in Sigtuna, Sweden (AD c.980-1300)
Manuscript, 2022
This paper examines all known finds of dice and gaming pieces from the settlement layers (occupation deposits) of Sigtuna, Sweden (AD c. 980–c.1300). The oldest dice, two items, are of rectangular Iron Age type, while all later dice are cubic. The majority are made from bone, antler, and walrus ivory. Nearly half exhibit a die pip arrangement of 6+5 / 4+3 / 2+1. The ‘modern’ arrangement where opposite faces always add up to 7, is less frequent. Both arrangement patterns co-existed from the 12th century. Onion-shaped gaming pieces from 11th century layers testify to board games, as does the single find of a hnefatafl board. Finds of chess pieces indicate that chess was first introduced in the 12th century. Over half of the gaming pieces are of antler. Other materials used are walrus ivory, bone including whalebone, and glass. Simple gaming pieces made from wood and the points of elk-antler tines are evidence of gaming by ordinary people.
Viking Age Bone and Antler work
This short article delas with Viking Age Bone and Antler work, and is connected to a CD-R with photo galleries of objects form Gotland and mainland Sweden, mainly Birka
Journal of Field Archaeology
This paper focuses on the spatial distribution of bone tool production waste from two Mesolithic sites in Sweden, Ringsjöholm and Strandvägen, with well-preserved faunal remains including bone and antler artifacts. Local production on both sites has generated a variety of identifiable waste products deriving from complete chains of production, including unmodified bones, debitage and finished products. Identified categories include: blanks, removed epiphyses, bone flakes, and preforms. Identification of species shows that antler and bone from red deer were the preferred raw materials. Spatial statistical analyses confirm that different stages of bone tool production were organized within separate areas of the sites and that larger items were discarded in the water along the shorelines. Interestingly, blanks and preforms seem to have been stored under water for future use and demarcated clusters of bone flakes in association with dwellings represent "bone knapping floors" where production was more intense than in other areas.
2022
The analysis provides a novel understanding of the technological details of the bone and antler manufacture in the 9 th and 10 th millennia before present as a proxy to emphasize contemporary Late-Glacial-originated versus Early Mesolithic bone technologies in Denmark. This paper contributes to the knowledge of newly dated bone weapons from Sjaelland, Lolland and Bornholm's islands in the Late Paleolithic (Late Glacial, Federmesser, Ahrensburg cultures) and the Danish Early Mesolithic (Maglemose culture).
2008
In all, there are more then 300 pictures showing different types of objects made of bone, antler or ivory. There are also some pictures showing the raw material, and also, like for spindle whorls, some examples made of other material than bone, like stone or metal. The measurement of the objects are at all times in centimetres. Most of the objects are from the island of Gotland, Sweden, or from mainland Sweden, mainly from the town of Birka. Still, some of the objects represented are very typical of the Viking Age use of bone or antler, especially when it comes to needles. Most of the objects are from the 9th-11th century, but many objects look the same as those from the Early Iron Age well into the Middle Ages.