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Worked bone tools: linking metal artisans and animal processors in medieval Islamic Morocco

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Nancy L. Benco ,
Ahmed Ettahiri  and
Michelle Loyet
Nancy L. Benco
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, George Washington University, 2110 G Street NW, Washington DC 20052, USA. benco@gwu.edu
Ahmed Ettahiri
Affiliation:
Institut National des Sciences de l'Archéologie et du Patrimoine, rue des Zaers, Souissi-Rabat, Morocco
Michelle Loyet
Affiliation:
University of Illinois, Urbana IL 61801, USA
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Extract

The authors examine the spatial distribution, use-wear patterns and surface residue of bone tools from al-Basra, concluding that they were likely to be have been used by Islamic metalworkers. The presence of bone tools and butchery waste in an urban metalworking context underscores the close economic ties that existed between artisans and food producers in a pre-industrial urban centre in the western Mediterranean.

Keywords

bone toolsmetalworkingal-BasraIslamic archaeology
Type
Papers
Information
Antiquity , Volume 76 , Issue 292 , June 2002 , pp. 447 - 457
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd. 2002

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