Current ICAZ Working Groups

Worked Bone Working Group—

The Worked Bone Research Group (WBRG) was formed during an informal meeting of circa 30 specialists of whom 10 gave papers. The meeting was organized by Dr. Ian Riddler of the Cantebury Trust and was held at the British Museum in February 1997. The proceedings of this first meeting were published in 2003 (see publication information below).

The purpose of the WBRG is to improve communication between individuals studying worked animal hard tissues (especially bone, antler, and ivory) with special emphasis on archaeological finds. A broad diachronic, and multi-disciplinary approach is emphasized in order to promote the exchange of ideas concerning attitudes to and procurement of raw materials, technology, and cognitive aspects of bone working.

The group has held a series of biennial international conferences. The second of these conferences was organized by Dr. Alice M. Choyke in Budapest, Hungary, in early September 1999 (38 papers). The title of the resulting publication is listed below. Participants at the Budapest meeting unanimously voted to apply for formal registration as an ICAZ Working Group. In June 2000 at the ICAZ International Committee Meeting in Madrid, the WBRG became an official Working Group of ICAZ.

The 3rd International Meeting of the WBRG was held in Augst, Switzerland, on September 4-9, 2001. It was organized by Jörg Schibler and his team from the University of Basel, Seminar für Ur- und Frühgeschichte, Abteilung Archäobiologie (since 2003 called Institute for Prehistory and Archaeological Science (PAS). Contributors came from all over Europe to talk about and discuss worked osseous materials from time periods ranging from the Lower and Middle Paleolithic to the Middle Ages.

With the Basel WBRG proceedings also due out next year we shall be well stocked with interesting bone tool papers in the German series of Archaeologie International.

Topics of the 3rd WBRG Meeting included discussions of individual assemblages, the results of experimental research on both manufacturing techniques and use wear, including macro wear with low stereoscopic magnifications and micro wear employing a metallographic light microscope. Attention in many of the papers was focused on the selection of raw materials and the relationship between technology and continuity of social traditions. Because of the small size of the conference more time was allowed for papers resulting in long and fruitful discussions of these topics and others.

The 4th WBRG meeting was held in Tallinn, Estonia, organized by Dr. Heidi Luik of the Institute for History. Altogether 25 papers were presented together with a large number of posters. Topics and time periods varied widely with a great deal of emphasis on verification of identification by experiment. The location meant that quite a few of the assemblages discussed came from the Baltic region. Requests for more information can be made to Dr. Luik (heidi18@mail.ee). The organizers published the proceedings in the Journal of the Institute of History of the Estonian Academy of Sciences in Tallinn, Estonia.

The 5th WBRG meeting was held in Veliko Turnovo, Bulgaria, at the end of August 2005. Dr. Milena Stanceva (milenastancheva@abv.bg) of the Regional Historical Museum in Veliko Turnovo with help from Petar Zidarov (topetar@yahoo.com), a PhD candidate at Tübingen University, Germany, organized a splendid meeting with 39 participants, 28 presentations and 11 posters from Europe and the United States. The Department of History, University of Turnovo, together with the Archaeological Museum of Veliko Turnovo were the host institutions.

The level of scientific discussion at these meetings was extremely high with the active participation of the many younger colleagues. Although the majority of the papers and posters this time were concerned with prehistoric materials the essence of the discussions dealt with methodological and theoretical considerations rather than details of local typologies. Discussions of the social meaning of objects ranged from the identification of marks on bone as abstract thinking on Middle Paleolithic (1.1 million ky) to discussion of manufacture and meaning of bone idols from the Bulgarian Chalcolithic. French colleagues beautifully integrated their groundbreaking work on manufacturing and use wear with the social context. Among the papers from later periods one theme was repeated–the strong association of bone/antler workshops with other crafts such as knife making. As in Tallinn, time was set aside for real discussions of the excellent poster material which was sent to the meeting.

Publication of the proceedings will be organized by Petar Zidarov and the publication date is aimed to sometime before the next meeting. After a lively discussion, Isabelle Sidera agreed to hold the WBRG meetings in Nanterre, France. The work done in the French CRNS group on bone tools over the last 40 years represents an incredible data resource for less well funded researchers in this field around the world.

The 6th WBRG meeting will be held at the Maison de l’Archéologie et de l'Ethnologie (MAE), Nanterre University, Paris, France. For details, contact the organizer Isabelle Sidera (isabelle.sidera@mae.u-paris10.fr) or check out the conference website at http://www.wbrgparis.com.

The WBRG group runs a closed mailing list (bonetools@listserv.iif.hu). Enquiries or announcements can be placed there. A website run out of the University of Basel is still under construction. However, Hans Christian Kuchelmann has developed his own bone tool web page, Knochenarbeit, which will hopefully be linked eventually to the one from Basel. New ideas for the list were gathered at the Veliko Turnovo meeting and Petar Zidarov and Hans-Christian Kuchelmann have kindly agreed to take over the nitty-gritty of organizing all this disparate information.

WBRG Publications:

1st Meeting: Materials of Manufacture: The Choice of Materials in the Working of Bone and Antler in Northern and Central Europe During the First Millennium AD edited by Ian Riddler (2003). BAR International Series 1193. Archaeopress, Oxford.

2nd Meeting: Crafting Bone: Skeletal Technologies through Time and Space edited by A. Choyke, and L. Bartosiewicz (2001). British Archaeological Reports International Series 937. Archeopress, Oxford.

3rd Meeting: From Hooves to Horns, from Mollusk to Mammoth: Manufacture and Use of Bone Artifacts from Prehistoric Times to the Present edited by H. Luik, A. Choyke, C. Batey, and L. Lõugas (2005). Muinasaja Teadus 15. Tallinn.

This information has been contributed by Alice M. Choyke, WBWG Liaison to ICAZ.