Boneworks

This page currently has two parts: Bone clothing closures at the top, and kolrosing on bone second down. I'll re-arrange shortly.

Bone clothing-closures

Gersvinda spends a LOT of time looking at the Swedish National Museum website. At one point, she noticed a pattern. There were a lot of items listed under “needle” that had a head much larger than the diameter of the shaft. They all had a hole in them, so not a standard “pin”, but clearly not something that could be used for sewing or naalbinding. She was curious about these objects. They came in many shapes and sizes, and were primarily found NOT in graves, but in the “scattered finds” as though someone had lost them.

Figure 1. Various bone “needles” from the Swedish National Museum.

This indicated to her that they were not an object of value (not found in graves), but rather something people used on a daily basis, and lost fairly frequently (there are a LOT in the museum). She reasoned that these were objects used to close clothing. Metal was expensive in the Viking Age (citation), and bone was plentiful, so much cheaper. With some experimentation, she discovered that these “needles” can be used to easily close a layer of clothing. The “needle” is inserted twice through two layers (working between the threads, as they are not particularly fine), and then a piece of string is run through the “eye” and run in a figure-8 around the inserted needle to keep it in place.

Figure 2. How to insert the “needle” and wind the attached string

We’ve worn these as a closure for our shawls for many years, and they work great. They do not come loose, they are not sharp (good for wrestling-drunk adults and babies!), they do very little damage to the fabric, and they are not expensive to make another if they are lost.

Figure 3. Two bone “needles” Gersvinda carved.

Kolrosing on bone, a wear-study (sample size of 1).

Definitions: kolrosing, to cut fine lines into wood, rub them with a dark powder (coal, charcoal, coffee, etc), and sometimes then add a finish to the wood so as to hold the pattern in place.

Scrimshaw, to decorate or carve ivory or whalebones. Sometimes also applied to shells.

What we are discussing today is doing essentially the definition of kolrosing, but on bone. This could totally be called scrimshaw, but we are calling it kolrosing, you can call it scrimshaw and that’s fine.

There are multiple objects from the Viking Age with dark lines on a bone object. The two below are spoons, held in the Swedish National Museum. One is identified as being from the Viking Age, the other Viking Age/Early Middle Ages. Can we absolutely say they were made by kolroseing? Not really, but that does seem like the most likely way to make these marks.

Figure 1. A Viking Age/Early Medieval spoon from Sweden, showing extensive decoration that is a different color from the underlying bone. http://mis.historiska.se/mis/sok/fid.asp?fid=117030&g=1

Figure 2. Listed as a spoon, an item from the Swedish National Museum. This object is listed as being dated to the Viking Age. It shows a complex decoration in a different color from the underlying bone.

http://mis.historiska.se/mis/sok/bild.asp?uid=239940

The item that we are testing kolrosing on is not an item that we can document to the Viking Age. There are no finds of bone lunula, but the person wearing this is allergic to metal. The decoration is based on extant Viking Age lunula from the Baltic States and Russia.

The lunula was made using only Viking Age appropriate tools (a saw, knife, and file). The bone was soaked in water, and worked wet. The ring and dot was made by using a tool specifically made for that purpose (a replica tool purchased from a vendor of ancient tools). The lines were made with a knife. The colorant was made by mixing charcoal with beeswax, and rubbing this mixture into the grooves. The whole lunula was then finished by rubbing it with beeswax.

The kolrosed bone lunula is worn around Kada’s neck. Other than when the string broke, she has not removed it in two years. The side worn toward her body shows no distinct wear of the kolrosing, but the side worn away from the body has lost more than 50% of the blackening.

Figure 3. The side of the bone lunula worn toward the body, showing kolrosed ring and dot design.

Figure 4. Side of the lunula worn away from the body, showing formerly kolrosed six lines and three dots.

Figure 5. (caption from the link below, found with the image) Lunnitsa. Bubents (compiled by MV Sedova)

1-2 Novgorod; 3 - a barrow near the village of Bor of Novgorod region; 4-8 - Vladimir's burial mounds; 9 - Gnezdovo, Smolensk region; 11 - Vladimir's burial mounds; 12 - mound 24 in the village of. Gochevo; 13 - Novgorod; 14 - a barrow near Khar-lapovo, Smolensk region; 75 - Vladimir's burial mounds; 16 - Big Brembola of the Vladimir Gub .; 17 - Veskovo Vladimir Gub .; 18 -Novgorod; 20 - a barrow near the village of Bocharove b. Yukhnovsky y .; 21 - Vladimir's burial mounds; 22 - the city of Suzdal; 23 - a barrow near the village of Yaskelevo, St. Petersburg Bay; 25 - Novgorod; 26 – Novgorod

http://xn--80aa2bkafhg.xn--p1ai/article.php?nid=28038

Figure 6. (caption found with the image) Привески-лунницы. X–XII века

Figure 7. (caption from the link below, found with the image) To the left is the "lunette" of the Radimichs; on the left from the bottom - "lunnitsa" from the Vladimir burial mounds, 10 - 12 centuries. (according to MV Sedova); on the upper right - "lunnitsa" 10 - 13 centuries; right below - a copy of the "lunnits" of the Radimich, Vorotynsk and Vyatichi, r. Issue.

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