Bone and antler handicraft

Introduction
Bone and antler from wild animals, as well as from domesticated animals have been an important part in all handicraft during prehistoric times and make up an extensive proportion of material found at all trading places from Viking Age. It is normally a well preserved material, but often we do have problem to distinguish what is to be seen as “normal meat bones” from what is reduced and semi-manufactured products, for instance from the making of needles.

An important question in this respect is if the material can give any idea of the questions concerning local production, or if the artifacts have been imported as finished products.

The total material from bone and antler handicraft coming from the excavations in Fröjel during our trial excavations between 1987 and 1990, are all together 205 posts, which is about 3% of the total material registered. I will in the following pages give some information about the artifacts we have found at Fröjel made of bone or antler, to give you an idea of what the material in a place like this looks like.

Click on the following links to see our bone and horn products:

Beaded Necklace of Bone and Horn
Fancy Bracelets of Bone and Horn
Decorative Handmade Bone Balls
Bone and Horn Photo Frames
Camel Bone Jewelry Boxes
Bone and Horn Cutlery
Handmade Showpiece of Bone and Horn