Primary Cycle Bone Tools for Working with Wool at the Late Bronze Age Complexes

Abstract

In 2022, during the excavations of the Late Bronze Age settlement Panagia 1 at the south-western part of the Taman Peninsula, three tools of the primary cycle of working with wool were identified among a large number of various bone artefacts according to trace evidence analysis. There is a lamella (shearing tool), used as a plate for sheep wool cutting with a metal blade during shearing, and the remains of wool comb-carder used for combing sheep wool, removing tangles, dirt and rubbish out of it. Based on a wide circle of analogies, the authors study the historiography, analyze the mistakes, made in the process of study, and consider all the pros and cons in the process of reconstructing the methods for manufacturing and using of these categories of bone tools according to trace evidence analysis. At the same time, the question of the presence of different types of comb-carders at the Bronze Age burials is considered. Changes in the names of tools and their parts are proposed and substantiated. The issues of ritual use of tools are considered.

Keywords

• archaeology
• bone tools
• lamella
• comb-carder
• wool
• trace evidence analysis
• comb
• experiment
• burial
• settlement
• bronze age
• history of research