Weaving-combs from the West Village 64

combs, HH 34, 114 and 123, were made has not yet been determined7. Of these it has been possible to classify 117 under special headings ; the remainder, 13, are too fragmentary to allocate to any particular type8.
In more than one-half of the dwellings in the western village weaving-combs were discovered, but at Glastonbury combs were found in less than one-half of the dwellings.
At Meare, Mounds IV, X, XI, XX, XXIII, XXX, XXXII and XXXVIII produced one comb each, and one was found in filling-in the excavations in 1913. In Mounds VIII, XIX, XXI, XXVIII, XXXVI and XL there were two combs each ; in Mounds XIII, XXVI and XXIX, three combs each ; from Mounds XXXIII and XXXV, six combs each ; and from Mound XXIV, seven combs. Mound IX was well supplied with fifteen specimens, and Mounds XXII and XXXIV produced seventeen combs each. But the most prolific weaving-establish-ment was Mound VII, which provided twenty-eight combs from various depths (from the first floor to below the lowest or sixth floor).
The writer has made no attempt to date these combs, as some were found in the foundations of the dwellings and others on the superimposed floors of the huts. It is an established fact that this type of comb is found on Iron Age A sites, while several have been collected with Roman antiquities.
As Dr. Wheeler says, all the varieties of these combs occur in the Wessex region, but Type 1 'is scarcely found outside the Wessex sphere of influence' (Maiden Castle Report, 298).

Classification
One hundred and seventeen specimens have been classified9 under the following headings, viz. (1) those with angular or pointed terminal to the handle ; (2)

7 In describing the combs from the western village in detail, the writer was puzzled by the three specimens, HH 34,
114, and 123, as they did not appear to be cut from red-deer antler nor from bones of domestic animals with which he was
familiar. The specimens were, therefore, sent to the British Museum (Natural History) for examination and report in
October 1936, and they were placed in the hands of Dr. F. C. Fraser, of the Department of Zoology. In his first letter
he said that on first viewing the specimens he thought, like myself, that they were fashioned from horn-cores of ox but
on comparisons being made, that was found not to be the case. He found that the shape of the individual little 'com-
partments' was quite different from ordinary bone. In the specimens in question they are circular in cross-section and
lenticular in longitudinal section.
Dr. Fraser extended his enquiry to making comparisons with the bones of many animals including elephant, rhinoceros, hippopotamus, whale, dolphin, seal, etc.
A colleague of Dr. Fraser, in the Mineralogical Department, made an X-ray analysis from a tiny fragment from the fractured specimen which showed that it was composed of calcium phosphate-the mineral substance of bone. He sent his photographs to the National Physical Laboratory at Teddington for verification, and the superintendent sent in the following report
'Your Xray photograph of a fragment of weaving-comb has been examined. It corresponds definitely to an apatite
(calcium phosphate) structure and is very similar to that which would be given by bone. Furthur than this it is impossible
to say as the various types of apatite give photographs which are very similar. Density measurements might, however,
settle the question as bone is known to contain a large proportion of organic matter'.
The correspondence concluded in February 1937, but the material from which these combs were fashioned was not
determined.

8 HH 9, 38, 44, 53, 60, 68, 70, 74, 90, 93, 107, 111, 126. Two of these, HH 9 and 53, show single perforations.

9 The classffication Into types is arbitraty - one merges Into another as it were, and the 'types' have no bearing on
chronology or actual date.

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