Journal of Archaeology in the Low Countries 3-1 (November 2011)Wietske Prummel; Hülya Halici; Annemieke Verbaas: The bone and antler tools from the Wijnaldum-Tjitsma terp 1

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8 The bone and antler tools from Wijnaldum-Tjitsma compared with those from other terpen in Friesland and Groningen

8.1 Roman period

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The quantities of bone and antler tools in Frisian and Groningen terpen, including Wijnaldum-Tjitsma, are low in proportion to the total numbers of animal remains (table 7; fig. 35). The area excavated at most of these terpen is comparable with that of the Roman phase of Wijnaldum-Tjitsma. The area of the Paddepoel excavation was, however, much larger, which explains the large number of finds (table 7).

Figure 35 Location of the terpen discussed in the text. 1. Wijnaldum-Tjitsma, 2. Achlum, 3. Dongjum, 4. Dronrijp, 5. Sneek, 6. Hoxwier, 7. Jelsum, 8. Hallum, 9. Leeuwarden-Oldehoofsterkerkhof, 10. Oosterbeintum, 11. Birdaard-Roomschotel, 12. Anjum-Terpsterweg, 13. Englum, 14. Wierum, 15. Paddepoel.

No worked or used bones were found at Hallum (Buitenhuis 2009), Birdaard-Roomschotel (Grefhorst & Prummel 2010) and Wierum (Prummel 2006). The only worked bone from Dongjum is a part of a sheep metatarsus of unknown function (GIA unpublished). A cattle metatarsus from Dronrijp shows the same type of wear as those in Wijnaldum-Tjitsma (Halici 2003, 46).

Table 7 Numbers of bone and antler tools found in the Roman, Migration and Early Medieval phases at terpen in Friesland and Groningen, with the total numbers of remains (total nisp: unworked and worked; for Wijnaldum-Tjitsma, however, only the numbers of identified mammal remains are given, because of the many small unidentified bone fragments (compare table 3), which would made the comparison with the other sites impossible) and the proportions of worked bone/antler. No total number of identified mammal remains is given for the Oosterbeintum site because the site is a cemetery and the bone and antler tools are grave goods.

Roman period	fibers/skin	personal utensils	amulets	musical instruments	household utensils	transport	waste/unfinished/unknown function	total worked bone/antler	total nisp	% worked
Wijnaldum-Tjitsma	1	-	8	-	2	-	1	12	718	1,7
Dongjum	-	-	-	-	-	-	1	1	476	0,2
Dronrijp	1	-	-	-	-	-	-	1	696	0,1
Hoxwier	4	-	-	-	-	-	-	4	144	2,8
Hallum	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	0	594	0,0
Leeuwarden-Oldehoofsterkerkhof	3	-	-	-	-	-	1	4	469	0,9
Birdaard-Roomschotel	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	0	92	0,0
Sneek	-	-	1	-	1	-	-	2	167	1,2
Paddepoel	34	-	-	-	2	-	6	42	2196	1,9
Wierum	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	0	2	0,0
Englum	14	-	1	-	2	-	2	19	1413	1,3

Migration period	fibers/skin	personal utensils	amulets	musical instruments	household utensils	transport	waste/unfinished/unknown function	total worked bone/antler	total nisp	% worked
Wijnaldum-Tjitsma	9	24	5	-	1	2	6	47	623	7,5
Dongjum	1	1	-	-	-	1	-	3	410	0,7
Hallum	-	2	-	-	1	-	-	3	39	7,7
Englum	-	-	-	1	-	2	-	3	225	1,3

Early middle ages (Merovingian, Carolingian and Ottonian periods)	fibers/skin	personal utensils	amulets	musical instruments	household utensils	transport	waste/unfinished/unknown function	total worked bone/antler	total nisp	% worked
Wijnaldum-Tjitsma	47	70	11	4	7	13	11	163	3878	4,2
Dongjum	-	1	-	-	-	1	1	3	489	0,6
Hallum	1	-	-	-	-	-	1	2	268	0,7
Oosterbeintum (cemetery)	4	10	8	-	-	-	-	22
Leeuwarden-Oldehoofsterkerkhof	2	4	1	-	-	6	2	15	2298	0,7
Wierum	-	-	-	-	-	-	16	16	147	10,9
Englum	2	1	-	-	-	-	-	3	155	1,9

The inhabitants of Hoxwier only used bone tools for fibre and skin working, as attested to by three worn and shiny horse and cattle metapodia and a shiny cattle costa fragment worn at both ends (Nieuwhof & Prummel 2007). The latter is regularly found in terpen but was not found at Wijnaldum-Tjitsma. A large number of them was found in the German terp Feddersen Wierde (1st century BC-5th century AD; Reichstein 1991, 311; Struckmeyer in press), where they are interpreted as fibre or skin working tools, but might have been used to smooth clay (Struckmeyer in press) or as household utensils (scraper).

The worked bones from the Roman period phase of Leeuwarden-Oldehoofsterkerkhof comprise a bone needle made from a pig fibula, two worn and shiny cattle metacarpi and a red deer cranium fragment with sawn antler base (Prummel 2011). The bone tools found in Sneek are a dice made from a sheep metatarsus and a horse phalanx one-sided comb? with point-circles (Clason 1962).

The majority of the bone tools from the late Iron Age to Roman period terpen Paddepoel I, II and III are fibre and skin working tools. They are worn cattle costa fragments, spindle whorls, an awl and metapodia used as polishers. Two perforated horse phalanges were identified as toys, but might be amulets (Knol 1983, 172-173). All Roman bone tools at Englum are connected to fibre and skin working: worn and shiny cattle and horse metapodia, costa fragments similar to the Hoxwier and Paddepoel ones, a worn cattle tibia fragment and a worn part of a cattle scapula (Prummel 2008).

Fibre/skin working tools are thus numerous at most of the Roman period terpen. Amulets and household utensils that were common at Wijnaldum-Tjitsma in the Roman period are rare in other Roman period terpen. Personal utensils and skates/sledge runners are lacking. They were unknown at the Frisian and Groningen terpen in the Roman period.

8.2 Migration period

The excavations at Dongjum, Hallum and Englum (table 7, fig. 35) were medium-sized; water-sieving was only done at Englum. The introduction of combs and bone skates during this period will partly explain the higher proportions of worked bones in the Migration and later periods (table 7). An antler comb side plate, a bone skate and a spindle whorl found at Dongjum date to the Migration period (GIA unpublished).

Two antler combs and a cattle costa fragment found together with a piece of wood of the same shape were found in the Migration period phase at Hallum. The combs are a triangular one-sided comb and a two-sided comb (Buitenhuis 2009). Other one-sided triangular combs came to light in an inhumation burial in the Oosterbeintum terp (Knol et al. 1996, 374-375; Kramer & Prummel 2000, fig. 1). The comb was dated to AD 475-525, i.e. during the Migration period (see table 7, where the comb is listed with the grave goods from the Migration and Merovingian periods). One specimen of the same type was found in Englum, but dated to the Merovingian period (see below).

Dating to the Migration period phase at Englum are two unfinished skates, one made from a cattle radius, the other from a horse metacarpus, and a sawn cattle costa similar to the ones found at Wijnaldum-Tjitsma (Prummel 2008). The use of bone and antler tools was perhaps less extensive in the other terpen than at Wijnaldum-Tjitsma, where however there is a broader assemblage which also include personal items. The large number of tools at Wijnaldum-Tjitsma, however, is also the result of water-sieving (table 7).

8.3 Merovingian period

The bone tools from the Merovingian, Carolingian and Ottonian periods from the other terpen are shown in table 7 under the heading ‘Early Middle Ages’ because tools from some terpen were not dated precisely enough to place them into a specific period. The excavated early medieval settlement areas at Dongjum, Hallum, Leeuwarden-Oldehoofsterkerkhof, Wierum and Englum were each smaller, but together larger than that of Wijnaldum-Tjitsma. Water-sieving was done at Englum but did not result in many bone and antler tools. The site of Oosterbeintum is a cemetery that was carefully excavated and where wet-sieving was part of the methodology.

At Merovingian Dongjum we find a horse metacarpus skate and a worked sheep costa (GIA unpublished). A bone needle from Hallum dates to Merovingian or Carolingian times (Buitenhuis 2009). Thirteen presumably Early Medieval tuning pins found at Hallum (Van Vilsteren 1987, 56) suggest an elite population at this terp.

Graves at Oosterbeintum, which was in use between AD 400 and 750, contained bone and antler grave goods that date to the Migration and Merovingian periods. These are a bone needle, three spindle whorls (one antler and two cattle capita femoris), seven composite combs, a pin, two beads, a pendant/amulet, two wolf teeth attached to a chatelaine and 5-7 knuckle bones (Knol et al. 1996). These grave goods fall into the categories of fibre and skin working tools, personal utensils and amulets. Two combs can be identified on the basis of the comb typology employed at Wijnaldum-Tjitsma. The two-sided composite comb from grave 422 dates to the Migration period. The comb with narrow, straight side plates from grave 5 belongs to Wijnaldum type 3, dating to Carolingian and Ottonian periods.

From Migration and Merovingian Leeuwarden-Oldehoofsterkerkhof we have a cattle metacarpus used as a polisher, fragments of about four two-sided composite antler combs and a broken skate from a horse metatarsus (Prummel 2011).

Bone working is attested to in the Merovingian phase of Wierum by the sawn distal end of a cattle metatarsus (Prummel 2006). Two fibre or skin processing tools from Englum date to the Migration or the Merovingian period: a cattle metacarpus used as a polishing or rubbing tool and the tip of an awl made from a sheep tibia. These findings suggest that fibre and/or skin working was done at Englum during one or both of these periods. A one-sided composite antler comb with triangular side plates from this terp, both of them decorated with parallel lines and point-circles, is Merovingian in date (Prummel 2008). Amulets, musical instruments and household utensils, which are quite numerous at Wijnaldum-Tjitsma in the Merovingian period (tables 1 and 3), are absent in other contemporary terpen, with the exception of Hallum (the tuning pins).

8.4 Carolingian and Ottonian periods

A perforated piece of red deer antler was found in a Carolingian or Ottonian feature at Hallum (Buitenhuis 2009). The bone tools from the Carolingian period at Leeuwarden-Oldehoofsterkerkhof are an unfinished needle made of a sheep or pig bone, a dice made of a sheep metatarsus, three skates (two of horse metacarpi and one of a horse tibia) and antler production waste. A horse metatarsus skate and a polished unknown type of tool (Prummel 2011) date to the Ottonian or later phase. No bone or antler tools were found in the Carolingian phase at Anjum-Terpsterweg. However, a side plate from an antler composite comb was found in an undated feature (Prummel & Van Gent 2010).

Bone working in the Carolingian period at Wierum is attested to by several sawn proximal and distal horse and cattle metapodia and radius ends and by a sawn horse mandible (Prummel 2006). Comb fragments made of cattle metapodia were found together with masses of waste, identical to that in Wierum, at the Tolweg-Zuid/Kinkhornsterweg terp (province of Groningen), together with cattle mandible debitage from the manufacture of spindle whorls (Prummel et al. 1999). The Tolweg-Zuid/Kinkhorsterweg finds, which date to the 12th-14th centuries, make it plausible that the Wierum sawn fragments are waste from composite comb production and perhaps spindle whorls.

The use and the diversity of the bone and antler tools at Wijnaldum-Tjitsma during the Migration, Merovingian, Carolingian and Ottonian periods was much more extensive than at any of the contemporaneous terpen. Several of the objects found at Wijnaldum-Tjitsma, for instance musical instruments and household utensils, were either not found in other terpen or very rare, for example personal utensils (table 7). We may conclude that a more prominent society lived at Wijnaldum-Tjitsma during the Early Middle Ages, and perhaps already during the Migration period, than at the other terpen.