The Function of a Chlorite Hand-Bag of the Halil Rud Civilization as Inferred from Its Wear Traces
Message:
Abstract:
A chlorite “hand-bag” currently on exhibit in the National Archaeological Museum, Tehran, is described focusing attention on the peculiar wear traces clearly visible on the handle and along its contour. These features demonstrate that the object, for a long time, had a cord rolled up on top of the handle, and hanged in isolation (as the edges are not chipped by the contact with similar items, as it happens, for example, for vertical loom weights). Wear patterns also suggest that the object was gradually polished while rubbing against a soft surface, most probably a vertical one, covered with cloth. The evidence, on the whole, is compatible with the use of this hand-bag as a flat weight covering a cloth-covered construction. At present, in middle southern Asia, graves of saints that are worshipped are frequently covered with precious cloth, kept in place by hanging weights. While this inference is based on a single object, and therefore is far from being granted, we suggest that wear traces can provide a useful key for understanding the function of these peculiar objects. Finally, the hand-bag was broken and restored with iron fittings and nails. As there is at least another sculpture of the Halil Rud Civilization showing an insert of iron, these fittings are not necessarily due to later restorations. The edges of the great Iranian deserts are a favorable location for the recovery of iron-rich meteorites. We think that the iron parts of the Tehran hand-bag should be analyzed to test the possible presence of rare metals like nikel, niobium and others, more abundant in meteorites than in terrestrial iron.
Language:
English
Published:
Iranian Journal of Archaeological Studies, Volume:2 Issue: 2, 2012
Pages:
1 to 10
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