Barung with carved Antler(?) hilt.

[AHite]

For what it's worth, I think that the handle is made of bone. The reason I believe this is the presence of holes in the end of the material which indicate where blood vessels where. This is common for bone, but not antler or ivory. Bone might have been more commonly used than antler in that region.

[kino]

Originally Posted by AHite

For what it's worth, I think that the handle is made of bone. The reason I believe this is the presence of holes in the end of the material which indicate where blood vessels where. This is common for bone, but not antler or ivory. Bone might have been more commonly used than antler in that region.

Thanks for your comments. I tend to agree with you on the common use of bone vs. antler. However I believe that this is not bone.
Here are a couple of photos of antler that displays “holes”, that you mentioned.

[Ian]

Just for the record, deer antlers are classified as a type of bone. They have a hard outer cortical layer of dense calcified bone and an inner medullary cavity (bone marrow) that has blood forming tissues and fat as wellas a trabecular bone structure.

Ivory tusks, such as elephantine ivory, are different. They are outgrowths that resemble teeth. The tusk has an outer layer of enamel but most of it is dentine.

Rhino horn is an outgrowth from the skin and is composed of densely fibrous keratin throughout.