Perforated bone artifacts from Indor Khera and Rohana Khurd, Upper Ganga Plain, India

Abstract

This paper presents a techno-functional analysis of two perforated bone artifacts recovered from Indor Khera and Rohana Khurd, North India, dated to c. 6th-2nd century BCE and 4th century BCE, respectively. These artifacts are made from bone walls of the unknown limb of medium/large-size mammals. Based on their morphology and parallels from archaeological sites of India, they have been identified as pendants and daggers. However, a close microscopic analysis of these artifacts tells a different story. The use-wears generated by threads around perforations contraindicate suspending (string-up) assumption. An experimental program has tested this by employing replicas of these artifacts as suspenders and fasteners. The result of this experiment and their comparison with archaeological ones suggest that these artifacts were probably used as fasteners rather than suspenders, thus challenging the conventional hypothesis that they were used as pendants. Apart from the functional aspects of these artifacts, the same experimental program was also used to understand the manufacturing process, i.e., the chaine operatoire.