> In particular, I wondered about the German references Christoph Roden
> cited - whether:
> 1 any of the information in them is available in English;
> 2 any of them are available on the Internet? (I've searched on 'Der
> Anschnitt' and only found contents listings.)
I'm sorry, but I didn't realize, that only sources in english language
available on the Internet are of interest for the members of this list.
>Thor's chariot, drawn by two
> goats, could be the furnace with a pair of goat-skin bellows (note that
> bag-pipes of goat skin not infrequently have pipes carved to represent
> goats' heads, suggesting the idea that this is still a goat in some sense,
> not just its reused skin).
Nice idea to decorate bag-pipes with goats' heads, but isn't this just an
allusion to the sound?
Some decorated Bronze Age tuyeres have a resemblance to the head of horses,
which (anyhow) corresponds to the real sound of bellows.
> The goats are slaughtered and the meat is eaten,
> but the skin and bones are carefully preserved, because they are to be
used
> not wasted. The skins become bellows and some of the bones - perhaps the
> long leg-bones - are used too.
There is only one detailed source for the manufacture of skin bellows in
medieval Europe, Theophilus' Treatise on Divers Arts (book III, chapter 4),
but Theophilus speaks of an iron pipe at the end of the bellows. I have
never seen any longitudinal perforated long bones neither in archaeological
nor ethnographical metallurgy contexts. Additionally - in this case
Theophilus doesn't seem to be up to date, because nearly all medieval
illustrations of forges and smiths show the use of a pair of bellows with
two handles, two boards and one valve (= our modern "garden-party type").
The byzantine bellows differ a little bit, but in northern Europe a pair of
bellows made from wood and leather was in use. Ausonius (320-395) speaks of
a woolen shield ("lanea parma"), wenn he discribes the valve of these
bellows.
Some literature in English:
Inga Serning: Prehistoric Iron Production, in: Helen Clarke (ed.), Iron and
Man in Prehistoric Sweden, Stockholm 1979, 50-98 (petroglyph from
Ramsundsberget)
Thalin-Bergman, Lena: Blacksmithing in Prehistoric Sweden, in: Helen Clarke
(ed.), Iron and Man in Prehistoric Sweden, Stockholm 1979, 99-133 (wood
relief from Hylestad)
W. G. Collingwood: Norththumbrian Crosses of the Pre-Norman Age, London
1927, 159ff (stone relief from Halton)
O. M. Dalton: Byzantine Art and Archaeology , New York 1961, 220, fig. 133
(relief on an ivory casket)
Regards
Christoph Roden
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