ancient disk

[Jean-Paul Cornec]

Hello all A friend of mine (french amateur diallist) was recently asked if he had any idea about the potential use of the following object. And if this use could be in relation with time telling.  He sent me a drawing. You can download a copy (10ko) at the following URL : http://perso.wanadoo.fr/jean-paul.cornec/disk.htm   It is a hard wood disk (boxwood ?), 75 mm in diameter, 11 mm thick. It was found in an ancient wall in the west of France. It is supposed it was designed to be used suspended by the top hole, or perhaps to be carried suspended around the neck.. On the picture all circles and drawings are carved in the surface. The three big points are nails with big heads. The other 19 or so small ones on the left are 'headless' nails. All nails seem to be in brass. Diameters of circles are respectively 26, 52, 55 and 57 mm. There are two sets of perpendicular axes.But they do not divide the circles into 8 equal parts. They are shifted by about 40°  and not 45°. On the right there is a series of about 20 hollow points.   I have thougt about a half-horizontal dial but why a half ? and how to orient it correctly and to set the style? Why not an altitude dial with the reading scale on the left, but why points above the horizontal and down to the bottom ? And there is no hole on the disk to put a pin or something to cast a shadow. Unless the big center nail played this role. The two inner broken lines look like the viking compass line, but these lines are here not exactly symmetrical about the horizontal axis. And why two lines.?   But perhaps actually this disk has nothing to do with time telling ...   Any idea ?   P.S. : For viking sun compass se  for instance : http://www.atco-fr.com/cadrans/navigation/navi_uk.php3 http://www.sjolander.com/viking/museum/Compass/rebobsun.htm     Jean-Paul Cornec LANNION FRANCE 48°44'20" N  3°27'32" W Cadrans Solaires de Bretagne : http://perso.wanadoo.fr/jean-paul.cornec/index.html