Ancient bone objects have been found in relatively large quantities in the entire Mediterranean, from Spain to Syria and Egypt to France, where they were manufactured between the Neolithic and Medieval periods. The art of carving animal bones involves especially antler and horn. However, the spectrum of the worked bone objects recovered from Anatolia, rest of the eastern Mediterranean, Near East, the Black Sea area and Balkans is very varied, and reflects different characteristics of Graeco-Roman and Early Byzantine daily life. In these areas they were also utilised as grave goods secondarily. They were exported or imported over the entire ancient Graeco-Roman and Early Byzantine worlds. In this conference papers dealing with ancient artefacts or objects manufactured by bone, antler, ivory, animal teeth, mother of pearl and cockleshell are included. Focus will be on bone objects between the first century B.C. and the sixth century A.D.

Presentation

Ancient bone objects have been found in relatively large quantities in the entire Mediterranean, from Spain to Syria and Egypt to France, where they were manufactured between the Neolithic and Medieval periods. The art of carving animal bones involves especially antler and horn. However, the spectrum of the worked bone objects recovered from Anatolia, rest of the eastern Mediterranean, Near East, the Black Sea area and Balkans is very varied, and reflects different characteristics of Graeco-Roman and Early Byzantine daily life. In these areas they were also utilised as grave goods secondarily. They were exported or imported over the entire ancient Graeco-Roman and Early Byzantine worlds.

In this conference papers dealing with ancient artefacts or objects manufactured by bone, antler, ivory, animal teeth, mother of pearl and cockleshell are included. Main material groups made by bones are as follows: items connected to personal grooming, weaponry, artefacts used for spinning or in pottery decoration, artefacts related to cosmetics, jewellery, combs, pins for clothing and women’s hair, items related to dressmaking and textile (particularly sewing needles, weaving implements or buttons), parts of soldiers’ equipment, items used for leather working, amulets and other magical items, knife handles, musical instruments, playing stones (e.g., lopsided dices), frames of various kinds (e.g., of mirrors), furniture (including fittings, wood sidings and inlayed decoration), boxes, plaques, writing items (for example, κάλαμοι, calami in Lat.), liturgical and religious items (e.g., crosses and reliquaries), half-finished products and miscellanea. Just in the rest of the Roman world, hairpins are the most numerous artefacts made of bone or antler in the Eastern part of the Empire. Gaming pieces represent the other widespread and customary instrumentum category of the worked bones. Several other material groups are also used during the processing of bone artefacts, for example, some objects may have been filled with coloured wax to make them to stand out. 

So far the study of this material group has been overlooked, whereas there is still a huge amount of unpublished material from excavations, field surveys and museums in the entire Mediterranean and rest of the ancient world. There is a regular conference series of the Worked Bone Research Group (WBRG; cf. <https://www.wbrg.net/>) which includes almost all periods and areas. In our e-meeting in 2025 we only focus on bone objects between the first century B.C. and the sixth century A.D., and attempt to set out a comprehensive model for the study of bone objects, including their definition, typology, chronology, contexts, function, regional characteristics, production and distribution patterns in the whole eastern Mediterranean geographies, including the Near East, Black Sea area and Balkans. The increasing number of recent finds in the concerned areas over the last thirty years, thanks to the development of preventive archaeology, has tended to challenge our previous observations and assumptions on Graeco-Roman and Byzantine bone artefacts. 

It is also our intention to create a complete bibliography of previous publications on bone objects for several areas and chronologies.

This e-conference is dedicated to the contributions of Hector Williams to Anatolian and Aegean archaeology who is Professor Emeritus of Classics and Classical Archaeology at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.

Please note that appointed times given on the timetable of the conference program are arranged according to the Istanbul-Athens-Izmir time zone which is one hour ahead of Central European Time (CET)/ Veuillez noter que les heures indiquées correspondent au fuseau horaire Istanbul-Athènes-Izmir, + 1heure par rapport au fuseau (CET).

Web link to join to the live meeting on Zoom / Liens Web pour rejoindre la réunion en direct sur Zoom :

• https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZYscO2tqDwrGNRlFl9z_wCGf1LI5IJAJZxJ
• Meeting ID / ID de conférence : 821 7456 7120.
  Password / Mot de passe : 118192.

Programm

10h00 – 10h35: Session 1: Opening session / Séance 1 : Séance d’ouverture

Chairman / Présidence : Maurizio Buora (La Società friulana di archeologia, Udine, Italy).

• Welcoming lecture / Conférence de bienvenue
• 10h00 Ergün Laflı (Izmir, Turkey) Introduction.
• 10 h 10 Opening lecture / Conférence d'ouverture – Keynote speakers / Conférenciers principaux : Isabelle Bertrand (Musées de Chauvigny, France) and Mégane Vialle (Université Paris Nanterre, France) Comme de cire ! Perspectives to Roman organic locking and sealing devices.

10h30 Discussion

10h35 – 10 h 45: Break / Pause

10h45 – 12h00: Session 2: Earlier, Roman and Early Byzantine bone finds from the eastern Mediterranean / Séance 2 : Découvertes en matière osseuse anciennes, romaines et protobyzantines de la Méditerranée orientale

Chairwoman / Présidente : Ana Hamat (Muzeul de Istorie Națională și Arheologie, Constanța, Romania).

• 10h45 Angeliki Liveri (Athens, Greece) Ivory in the Aegean Bronze Age: Minoan and Mycenaean objects and workshops.
• 11h00 Chiara Bianchi (Milan, Italy) “Alexandrian bone counters”: finds and interpretations.
• 11h15 Angeliki Liveri (Athens, Greece) Parva munera: representations of public spectacles on Roman and Early Byzantine bone objects.
• 11h30 E. Hector Williams (The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada) Bone objects from the University of British Columbia’s excavations at Anemurium (Rough Cilicia) and Mytilene (Lesbos).

11h45 Discussion

12h00 – 13h00: Lunch break / Pause déjeuner

13h00 – 14h15: Session 3: Roman and Early Byzantine bone finds from Moesia, Illyricum and its environs / Séance 3 : Objets en matière osseuse d'époques romaine et protobyzantine de la région de la Mésie, de l'Illyrie et de ses environs

Chairman / Présidence : E. Hector Williams (The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada).

• 13 h 00 Marin K. Marinov (Istoricheski Muzei Svishtov, Bulgaria) Roman and Early Byzantine bone artefacts from the buildings extra muros west of the legionary camp and site
  of Novae, Bulgaria.
• 13 h 15 Jelena Cvijetić and Marija Ljuština (both from the Univerzitet u Beogradu, Serbia) Beauty is hidden in tiniest things: bone artefacts from ancient necropolises in Montenegro/South Illyricum.
• 13 h 30 Gordana Jeremić and Selena Vitezović (both from the Arheološki institut, Belgrade, Serbia) Early Byzantine antler objects from the hill-top fortifications in northern Illyricum, Serbia.
• 13 h 45 Alka Starac (Arheološki muzej Istre, Pula, Croatia) Roman bone pins, needles, spinning and weaving accessories from the Archaeological Museum of Istria, Croatia.

14h00 Discussion

14h15 – 14h30: Break / Pause

14 h 30 – 16 h 30: Session 4: Roman and Early Byzantine bone finds from the Black Sea area, Dacia and its environs / Séance 4 : Artéfacts en matière osseuse d'époques romaine et protobyzantine de la région de la mer Noire, de la Dacie et de ses environs

Chairwoman / Présidente : Marija Ljuština (Univerzitet u Beogradu, Serbia)

• 14h30 Viktor G. Zubarev, Elena V. Shushunova and Sergey V. Yartsev (all from the Tul’skiy Gosudarstvennyy Pedagogicheskiy Universitet Im. L. N. Tolstogo, Russia) Worked bones depicting Isis and Horus from the excavations of the necropolis of Belinskoye site on the western border of the Bosporan Kingdom.
• 14h45 Ingrid Petcu-Levei and Radu Petcu (both from the Muzeul de Istorie Nationala si Arheologie Constanța, Romania) An ivory statuette figuring Thanatos from the suburbs of Tomis, Romania.
• 15h00 Iosif Vasile Ferencz (Muzeul Civilizatiei Dacice si Romane Deva, Romania) and Ana-Maria Păpureanu (Muzeul Național Brukenthal, Sibiu, Romania) Marine adornment: About a purple dye murex shell pendant discovered in Dacia.
• 15h15 Ștefan Georgescu and Ana Hamat (both from the Muzeul de Istorie Națională și Arheologie, Constanța, Romania) Some new and old finds from the type of bone amulet in the form of a hand from the Romanian collections.
• 15h30 Ana Hamat (Muzeul de Istorie Națională și Arheologie, Constanța, Romania) Bone and antler jewellery and accessory for women discovered in Dacia Superior, Romania.
• 15h45 Ioan Oprea (the Muzeul Național al Unirii, Alba Iulia, Romania) Conservation of organic artefacts in the collections of the National Museum of Alba Iulia, Romania.
• 16h00 Ferenc Fazekas (Városi Múzeum, Paks & Régészet Tanszék, Hungary) Roman bone objects from the frontier zone of Pannonia (Lussonium), Hungary.

16h15 Discussion

16h30 – 16h45: Break / Pause

16h45 – 17h30: Session 5: Roman bone finds from Portugal / Séance 5 : Artéfacts en matière osseuse d'époque romaine

Chairwoman / Présidente : Zoe Tsiame (University of Thessaly, Volos / Orthodox Academy of Crete, Chania, Greece).

• 16h45 Raquel Guimarães (Universitat de Barcelona, Spain), José Carlos da Costa Quaresma, Daniel Andrade, Paulo Calaveiras, Cristiana Sofia Figueiredo Ameixinha and Martim Lopes (all from Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal) Bone artefacts from Mirobriga, Santiago do Cacém, Portugal.
• 17h00 Martim Lopes (Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Torres Vedras, Portugal), Inês Domingos da Silva (Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal) and José Carlos da Costa Quaresma (Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal) Bone artefacts in stratigraphy from the Roman sites of Almoínhas and Frielas, Portugal.

17h15 Discussion

17h30 – 17h45: Break / Pause

17h45 – 18h30: Session 6: Italian-Turkish contribution to Roman and Early Byzantine bone studies / Séance 6 : Contribution italo-turque aux études sur les objets en matière osseuse d'époques romaine et protobyzantine

Chairwoman / Présidente : Isabelle Bertrand (Musées de Chauvigny, France).

• 17h45 Ergün Laflı (Izmir, Turkey), Maurizio Buora (La Società friulana di archeologia, Udine, Italy) and Fatih Hakan Kaya (Doku Eylül University, Izmir, Turkey) Roman bone distaffs figuring Aphrodite of Menophantos - Venus Pudica from Turkey.
• 17h50 Ergün Laflı (Izmir, Turkey), Maurizio Buora (La Società friulana di archeologia, Udine, Italy) and Fatih Hakan Kaya (Dokuz Eylül University, Izmir, Turkey) Roman bone figural panels from Turkey.
• 17h55 Ergün Laflı (Izmir, Turkey), Maurizio Buora (La Società friulana di archeologia, Udine, Italy) and Fatih Hakan Kaya (Dokuz Eylül University, Izmir, Turkey) Roman bone distaffs and spindle from Turkey.
• 18 h 00 Ergün Laflı (Izmir, Turkey), Maurizio Buora (La Società friulana di archeologia, Udine, Italy) and Fatih Hakan Kaya (Dokuz Eylül University, Izmir, Turkey) Graeco-Roman funerary steles depicting distaffs and spindles from Turkey
• 18 h 05 Ergün Laflı (Izmir, Turkey), Maurizio Buora (La Società friulana di archeologia, Udine, Italy) and Fatih Hakan Kaya (Dokuz Eylül University, Izmir, Turkey) Roman bone combs, boxes and miscellanea from Turkey.
• 18 h 10 Ergün Laflı (Izmir, Turkey), Maurizio Buora (La Società friulana di archeologia, Udine, Italy) and Fatih Hakan Kaya (Dokuz Eylül University, Izmir, Turkey) Roman and Early Byzantine bone gambling dice from Turkey.
• 18 h 15 Ergün Laflı (Izmir, Turkey), Maurizio Buora (La Società friulana di archeologia, Udine, Italy) and Fatih Hakan Kaya (Dokuz Eylül University, Izmir, Turkey) Post-Byzantine mother-of-pearl liturgical objects from Turkey.

18h20 Discussion

18h30 – 18 h 45: Break / Pause

18h45 – 19 h 30: Session 7: Closing session / Séance 7 : Séance de cloture

Chairwoman / Présidente : Chiara Bianchi (Milan, Italy).

18h45 Closing lecture 1 / Conférence de clôture 1

• Keynote speaker / Conférencier principal : Marie Delassus (Musée du Louvre, Paris, France) Miniature architecture and vegetal decoration on the bone furniture carvings in Roman and Byzantine Egypt.

19h00 Closing lecture 2 / Conférence de clôture 2

• Keynote speaker / Conférencier principal : St. John Simpson (The British Museum, London, UK) Sasanian and early medieval bone objects: archaeological case studies from Iraq, the Persian Gulf and Central Asia.

19h15 Ergün Laflı (Izmir, Turkey) Closing technical remarks and next e-conference in May 2026

19h25 Discussion