Long Handled Weaving Combs: Problems in Determining the Gender of Tool-Maker and Tool-User

Abstract

This chapter explores the relationship between gender and material culture by taking one artefact class, antler and bone combs, and investigating three issues: their supposed function as a weaving tool; the assumption that they are therefore a woman’s tool; and the question of who might have made these artefacts. Long Handled combs of antler and bone have been found on a number of domestic sites in the British Isles. They are mainly dated to the Iron Age although a few have been found in Late Bronze Age contexts on the one hand, and with Roman finds on the other. They normally have teeth at one end and are frequently decorated (see Figures 9.1–9.3). They can vary in length from 70–220 mm with a rough average of 150 mm. Scottish combs are often made of whalebone and differ both in design and possible use. This chapter will concentrate on the combs found in Southern Britain which are mainly made from the antlers of red deer, with some bone examples — usually the shaft bones of ox or horse — and only very rare examples made from whalebone.

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