Typological Catalogue of the ancient Roman Scribal Tool Known as a Bone Rule

Abstract

The dataset contains a typological catalogue of archaeological small finds of an ancient device known as a "bone rule" or "bone ruler" or "bone spatula," together with scaled drawing and full metadata for each item in the catalogue. The ancient device has been identified as some type of scribal tool [8,9,13,28,45]. The dataset is assembled from publications; from online resources; and from individual scholars. The PDF Bone_Rules_Catalogue file records all pertinent available information, including find spots, inventory number, measurements, scaled thumbnails, and notes including inventory numbers, bibliographical references, and citations for plates and drawings. The PDF Bone_Rules_Catalogue file is best for a conspectus of known specimens. The PDF Bone_Rules_Catalogue file also records other bone objects improperly claimed as bone rules, and a full bibliography, both of which are included also as separate PDF files (PDF Other_Bone_Objects, PDF Bibliography) as a convenience. The CSV Catalogue_ Proper file contains all fields in the PDF catalogue in csv format, but also breaks spatial and measurement data into separate fields and regularizes field contents. The CSV Catalogue_Proper file is therefore best for data processing. The full-scale drawings with metadata form the remainder of the core dataset. The catalogue and full dataset are meant to accompany the analysis and discussion in William A. Johnson, "Scribal Tools of the Trade: Bone Rules, Dividers, and Lamps as Writing Aids," Segno e Testo 2023 [41].

Depictions of bone ‘spatulate’ strips and a few thoughts about their function

“…This contribution was accepted for publication before I had access to Johnson's careful analysis; I incorporated his insights as far as possible.2 The recent catalogue by W.A. Johnson(Johnson 2022;2023a) contains the most comprehensive list of bone strip finds to date (66 items plus several uncertain ones), to which five more finds plus two possible ones can be added: one from Britain (Piercebridge: Eckardt and Walton 2021: 125), one from Germany (Xanten: Jung 2013: 99 cat. no.…”