Tool, mount, clamp, gaming board (piece) from Brough of Birsay, Orkney

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These objects were found at the Norse settlement at the Brough of Birsay in Orkney. They illustrate some of the range of objects which were made from bone, whalebone or antler. The objects date from between 850 and 1200.

At the top is a wedge-shaped bone tool of unknown purpose, perhaps something to do with agriculture. Below this on the left is a thin mount made of antler, preserving a bone peg. To the right is a whalebone clamp or vice pierced with an iron rod and decorated with ring and dot decoration. At the bottom is a whalebone gaming board.

From an early period, people in Scotland used objects made from bone, antler and similar materials in almost every area of daily life. This was particularly true in the largely treeless north and west of Scotland.

Record details

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• Online ID: 000-000-136-630-C
• Image Rights Holder: National Museums Scotland
• Project: Early Scottish Shelter - Life in the Prehistoric Home (multimedia essay)
  Project description   View all records in project
• Ref: National Museums Scotland  X.HB 246
• Date: Date of gaming board: 950-1200; date of rest: 850-1000
  
• Material: Bone
  Bone; in form of wedge; top forming ring; pierced laterally by oval-shaped bar, neatly cut off; perforation
  Whalebone; five rows vertical lines, three horizontal; with perforations at junctions irregularly spaced
  Whalebone; flat base; curved top with rounded ends; decorated with dot in circle pierced at centre by corroded iron rod
  Board, gaming / portion
  Mount
  Tool / wedge
  Vice / clamp
  
• Dimensions: 120 mm L
  76 mm L
  92 mm x 62 mm
  99 mm L; peg 16 mm L
  
• What: Board, gaming / portion
  Mount
  Tool / wedge
  Vice / clamp
  
• Subject:
• Who:
• Where: Scotland, Orkney, Brough of Birsay
  Scotland, Orkney, Brough of Birsay
  Scotland, Orkney, Brough of Birsay
  Scotland, Orkney, Brough of Birsay
  
• Event:
• Description: Fragments of a pegged bone board, probably for hnefatafl, from Birsay, Orkney
  Bone tool in the form of a wedge, from Birsay, Orkney
  Vice or clamp of whalebone, incomplete, for holding comb plates during manufacture, from Birsay, Orkney
  Antler mount with four perforations, retaining one complete antler peg and the head of a second, from Birsay, Orkney
  
• References:
  • Curle, C.L. Pictish and Norse finds from the Brough of Birsay, 1973-74. Edinburgh: Society of Antiquaries of Scotland Monograph Series 1, 1982, pp 60-1, 75-6, 109-111. 
• Translations:
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