Whale Tooth

Whale tooth which was found during excavation at The Cairns Project, South Ronaldsay, investigating the Iron Age landscape in Orkney. The object is around 6cm long in scale. The whale tooth was found in a context associated with metalworking in one of the trenches at The Cairns. Whale-tooth is fairly often used in the production of quite complex composite items during the Iron Age, such as pommels or hilt guards for iron blades like swords and knives. It's possible that this was such a composite part of that kind of object, but any kind of diagnostic feature is missing due to the breakage pattern. It might have been part of a composite object that's been stripped down for recycling the metal and the whale tooth was discarded, or it may have been destined for such an object but broke before it could be finished. - Information about this object was given by Martin Carruthers, site director at The Cairns Project. Source: Objaverse 1.0 / Sketchfab