Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Speaking of Pouches....

Here's another interesting National Geographic article about archaeological evidence for early fashion.

This one is about a Stone Age pouch, excavated at the Profen site in Germany, that is covered with dog's teeth--a hundred of them. Or, rather, the teeth have been deduced to have ornamented the flap of a pouch, because mostly it's the teeth that have survived. A good photograph of the artifact accompanies the article.

Archaeologists are quoted in the article as observing that similar purposeful groupings of teeth have been found in other Stone Age burials, suggesting that teeth were sewn all over special blankets or worn as necklaces. The use of so many teeth on a bag or pouch, however, suggests to me that there was something special about the bag. Perhaps it was used to contain magical paraphernalia, much like the amulet and drug-seed-containing pouches found in some Viking women's graves. That's a hypothesis to keep in mind if other, similar finds surface.

4 comments:

  1. I can't seem to open the link- it keeps saying I don't have permission ot view.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Sorry, the wrong link is in there. Thanks for drawing that to my attention. I'll fix it now.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Found some photos that might help give it a sense of scale? http://www.mz-web.de/zeitz/burgenlandkreis-staunen-pur,20641144,17384616.html and http://www.bild.de/regional/leipzig/taschen/das-ist-die-aelteste-handtasche-der-welt-29942412.bild.html :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for the photos! They show that the artifact is much larger than I assumed it had to be.

      Delete