OT:Mystery item - help...

[Tyra]

Hope this pic will upload right...
Can anyone tell me what this is? It's an archaeological mystery item that came up on a list I'm on. Thought this list is "international" and full of people interested in Norse stuff, so I'm cross posting. Not AA at all, but I'd appreciate your input. The item was found in an iron age harbour in Sweden. The material is bone. Very soft, with no wear. Just over 5 cms long. Disregard the string - it just holds the item tag.

 

[Hnikar]

this is just a guess but maybe a fishing impliment seeing as it was found in the harbour. ayour fishing line would be round up in the center an the item would beused to catch fish. the only reason i say this is becoz in sa a similiar item is still used to, but sometimes it would even be a stick

 

[Chainer]

It kinda looks like those handle-things on boats that you use to tie the boat to the dock with a rope.But i doubt they would make them out of bone..Do you know what civilization it came from?

 

[DragonKeeper]

Ah that would be my guess...
I am used to seeing a more flat cardlike shapped wood or plastic thing with a long notch on both sides where the fishing line is wrapped around, which is used for catching smaller fish. But I am assuming it would show signs of wear in the middle and it appears to have virtually none. Maybe it was part of a closure for a purse or bag? It is a mystery item indeed! I hope you find out what it is...good luck!

 

[Hnikar]

my first thoughts were also the bout tie things but at 5cms long, it would be too small to be that. the purse bag theory could be the right one

 

[Thrymfal]

Is it hollowed out?

 

[Tyra]

No, it's not hollowed out.
Hnikar, is 5 cms not too short for such an item? I am interested in your idea, because I had thought of that, too, but you have an ethnological reason, too. The ones used today, are they that small? I guess it'd fit nicely in the hand if it were smaller.
Two things:
1. I'm told the bone is very soft, and yet there is no wear on the piece.
2. Don't get too stuck with it being a harbour. It was a reasonably busy area in itself, with all sorts of comings and goings.
I had in mind one of those toys where you have two sticks with a string in between. Then you have a little weight thingy that you put in the middle, and if you work the toy just right, with skill, you can roll the weight back and forth between the sticks. But then you'd not have such a wide "waist" on the weight as you have here... It could just as well have been a sewing implement as a peg for a game of some kind, or part of a tool for navigation.
Thing is, that the harbour itself would be considered "viking", but seing as how it is a harbour, whoever visited and dropped this, could just as well have been Ibn Fahadlan, or some dude from Italy, so don't get stuck on the Norse thing either. All input is appreciated!

 

[Hnikar]

people use anything for the task, no matter how small. all it is really there for is to mak it easier to pull on the line, as trying that with your bare hand is quite painfull. and if it was small it could easilly be carried around esily. the fact that there is no wear on the bone does trouble me, as it almost makes my theory obsolete. i'll look around some more to try and find a similar artifact

 

[Xyercies]

my first thought was a kite reel...but the fishign implement sounds more likly

 

[Thrymfal]

does bone float? it looks like one of these bobbers that they make out of cork these days.

 

[Tyra]

I don't know - I'll have to find out. It may have floated at one point, but the question is if the thing will float now even if it did then, after being in the ground for so long. The "waist" is so well defined...thins one really has me thinking!

 

[gnoff]

does bone float? it looks like one of these bobbers that they make out of cork these days.

I tried with most of the bone pieces we had at home, not of them showed any sign of floating.

 

[gnoff]

Hope this pic will upload right...
Can anyone tell me what this is? It's an archaeological mystery item that came up on a list I'm on. Thought this list is "international" and full of people interested in Norse stuff, so I'm cross posting. Not AA at all, but I'd appreciate your input. The item was found in an iron age harbour in Sweden. The material is bone. Very soft, with no wear. Just over 5 cms long. Disregard the string - it just holds the item tag.

Did you try

http://www.historiska.se/histvarld/forum/

??

Or maybe that's where it came from?

 

[Tyra]

No, but a lot of us are on that same list. Sometimes you have to go completely out of the same old box. 95% of the guys on that list are archaeologists. I wanted some fresh eyes, and I wanted some who were not necessarily Swedish...y'all fit that bill, plus you don't come with a lot of preconceived ideas of what is and what is not typical for the place and the era.

 

[F_Slim]

To me it looks like a button for clothes?
Or maybe it was used to roll up strings for transport and sale?
Maybe a guide roller, part of the rigging of a ship? A crane?
Could be a part of a loom or spinning-wheel. In case those kind of things were sold and transported with ships, but I doubt that ... I really don't know, but maybe you need something like this to make carpets?
The fact that it shows no sign of wear is strange, but it might have been new when it was lost.
Was anything else found around it?

so much for my brainstorming ... more like a mild breeze ...

 

[DragonKeeper]

Could it have been part of a measuring intrument?...like those survayer things with the bar on top and a long string tied onto it with a weight at the bottom.
http://www.vikingsandsaxons.com/upclose.php?id=178&file=178.04.jpg&offset=5
here is another random bone object...it says "spacing tool" but who knows...
ah a loom....a counter weight perhaps...that could work. a purse closure as i thought may not be it since it is not really decorated, but eh it would have been purely functional, so it still works.

 

[DemonsAndLies666]

i got this idea...

if you were to make a full scale model of the item... just carry it around or something and see what you try to do with it. ... perhaps it was a tool used in some sort of drinking game???

 

[Knarfi]

Yeah f slims idea is a good one, but its a bit big for it i guess

 

[Eldur]

This is premature fishing equipment, a fishing pole without the pole if you will

 

[TheLastWithPaganBlood]

THe button idea I liked, it's the same size as buttons for duffelcoats.