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
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5.3 Amulets
Amulets refer to the symbolic and ritual aspects of life at the site. Sheep and cattle astragali that are worn and shiny due to being used and handled are the largest group in this category. Some of them are perforated (figs 17 and 18), others have little dots (fig. 19). Most of the astragali were not processed, but just used, presumably as amulet or as dice in divination (Knol 1987; 1988), or perhaps in knucklebone-games. The two die found at the site may have been used in divination or games (fig. 20).
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Figure 17 Perforated, worn and shiny sheep astragalus, find no. 4057, Carolingian period.
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Figure 18 Left astragalus of a neonatal calf, perforated from plantar to dorsal, presumably used in divination, find no. 6564, Migration period.
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Figure 19 Right cattle astragalus with dots on the plantar side, find no. 6654, period unknown.
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Figure 20 Two dice made of sheep metatarsi, find nos. 8014 (left) and 2664 (right), both Migration period.
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Pendants made of red deer antler were probably used as amulets in magic and divination rituals (Knol 1988). This seems to be the case for the nicely decorated ‘Donar amulets’, which are decorated conical rods of antler with a hole at the top (figs 21 and 22). One of the Wijnaldum ‘Donar amulets’ was found in the Merovingian inhumation burial of a young woman. It was found between her knees (Cuijpers et al. 1999) (fig. 21). Antler amulets were generally placed as grave goods in early medieval graves, for example a round pendant of red deer antler is found in a child burial at the early medieval cemetery of Oosterbeintum, dated AD 450-600 (Knol et al. 1996, grave 402).
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Figure 21 ‘Donar amulet’ of red deer antler found in the Merovingian inhumation burial of a young woman, find no. 11702.
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Figure 22 ‘Donar amulet’ of red deer antler broken at the hole, find no. 11694, Merovingian period.
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