Early Medieval Bone Tools from Northern Croatia // Koštani alat ranog srednjeg vijeka iz sjeverne Hrvatske

This paper deals with bone tools found during archaeological excavations of six sites in northern Croatia. All these items present a pointed tip, but differ from each other: the main feature of the first group is a hollowed bone, while the second group is represented by a flat object. They were found in domestic archaeological contexts that can be dated between the 7th and the 9th centuries, and in a grave dated to the late 10th or the early 11th century. Both types of objects appear at the site of Torčec – Prečno Pole, almost at the same time, which, together with the differences in shape, suggests that each type was intended for a particular primary function. This implies that they should also be distinguished by terminology and therefore the term “bone thatching needle” is proposed for the first group of objects and “bone awl” for the second one. U radu se obrađuje koštani alat koji potječe iz arheoloških istraživanja šest lokaliteta u sjevernoj Hrvatskoj. Predmeti zašiljena vrha međusobno se razlikuju. Glavna značajka prve grupe je prošupljena kost, dok je druga grupa zastupljena plosnatim predmetom. Potječu iz naseobinskih arheoloških cjelina koje se mogu datirati od 7. do 9. stoljeća, te iz jednog groba datiranog u kraj 10. i početak 11. stoljeća. Obje vrste predmeta u jednom se slučaju pojavljuju na istom lokalitetu (Torčec – Prečno pole) gotovo u isto vrijeme, što, uz oblikovne razlike, implicira da je svaka od njih bila namijenjena određenoj primarnoj funkciji. Iz svega proizlazi kako bi ih valjalo razlikovati i terminološki te se predlaže pojam koštani propletač za prvu, odnosno koštano šilo za drugu vrstu predmeta. // This paper deals with bone tools found during archaeological excavations of six sites in northern Croatia. All these items present a pointed tip, but differ from each other: the main feature of the first group is a hollowed bone, while the second group is represented by a flat object. They were found in domestic archaeological contexts that can be dated between the 7th and the 9th centuries, and in a grave dated to the late 10th or the early 11th century. Both types of objects appear at the site of Torčec - Prečno Pole, almost at the same time, which, together with the differences in shape, suggests that each type was intended for a particular primary function. This implies that they should also be distinguished by terminology and therefore the term "bone thatching needle" is proposed for the first group of objects and "bone awl" for the second one.