Bone Tool Studies

Published online 4 March 2024: https://brill.com/display/title/24910 (ed. Adam Izdebski and Johannes Preiser-Kapeller, Brill 2024, 570 pp.)

How did humans and the environment impact each other in the medieval Eastern Mediterranean? How did global climatic fluctuations affect the Byzantine Empire over the course of a millennium? And how did the transmission of pathogens across long distances affect humans and animals during this period?

This book tackles these and other questions about the intersection of human and natural history in a systematic way. Bringing together analyses of historical, archaeological, and natural scientific evidence, specialists from across these fields have contributed to this volume to outline the new discipline of Byzantine environmental history.

Contributors are: Johan Bakker, Henriette Baron, Chryssa Bourbou, James Crow, Michael J. Decker, Warren J. Eastwood, Dominik Fleitmann, John Haldon, Adam Izdebski, Eva Kaptijn, Jürg Luterbacher, Henry Maguire, Mischa Meier, Lee Mordechai, Jeroen Poblome, Johannes Preiser-Kapeller, Abigail Sargent, Peter Talloen, Costas Tsiamis, Ralf Vandam, Myrto Veikou, Sam White, and Elena Xoplaki

The paper presents the results provided by technical research focused on bone tools and ornaments recovered from layer 11 in the Main Chamber of Denisova Cave in 2016. The manufacture of ornaments involved the use of a great variety of materials: soft gemstones, tubular bones of animals and birds, teeth of herbivorous and carnivorous mammals, ivory, as well as shells from freshwater clams. Production techniques employed for manufacturing bone tools and non- utilitarian objects included several stages: selecting a raw material; obtaining a half-finished product; processing by shaping, scraping, grinding, drilling and polishing. A number of processing methods (grinding, drilling, cutting, polishing), being specific for the early Upper Paleolithic period, were utilized in this industry for producing objects from bone and ivory, as well as for soft stones working. Bone tools are represented by a point and fragments of needle cases or by hafts. According to their function, the ornaments from layer 11 can be classified into various types: flat and dimensional beads; holed beads; pendants with the circular grooves or with one drilled hole; plaques with two holes; an ornamented plate. The use-wear analysis has enabled the identification of the wear traces on the surfaces of the studied products, suggesting utilization and indicating the long-term use. The abundance, morphological and functional variability of the ornaments from layer 11 reflect an exceptional diversity of the methods used for personal ornamentation, implying the existence of preferences and traditions in the use of these objects.

Bone tools are abundant on Iroquoian sites and are generally analyzed using a typo-functional perspective. This article will serve as a demonstration of a demonstration of the utility of bone tools to study the household and social organization of St. Lawrence Iroquoians through intra- and inter-household spatial analyses.

Bone needle, being unique in its well-preserved state, was recovered in 2016 in lithological horizon 11.2 in the Main Chamber of Denisova Cave. The main stages in manufacturing the needle were reconstructed as follows: obtaining a half- finished product from the tubular bone wall of a large mammal by cutting and splitting; shaping and grinding the obtained blank; double-sided drilling and finishing polish. The small diameter of the needle’s eye suggests using a tenuous thread of about 1 mm diameter. This research has made it possible to reveal the wear traces on the needle surface related to the long-term use of the product according to its function. A total of 13 items associated with the context for producing bone needles were recognized and studied in the Paleolithic collections from Denisova Cave. A comparison between these tools and artifacts from the other sites, which yielded similar finds, enables consideration of the bone needles found in layer 11 at Denisova Cave as the earliest articles of this type in Eurasia.

ABSTRACT

The excavation of the Abri des Autours, a rock-shelter located in southern Belgium, enabled the discovery of three human burials, two dated to the Early Mesolithic and a third dated to the Middle Neolithic. In addition to the human bones, more than 200 faunal remains were uncovered. A taphonomic analysis was undertaken to determine whether their presence resulted from anthropogenic activities and whether they are linked to the burials. Two assemblages were distinguished. The majority of the fauna corresponds to remains of animals found scattered throughout the cave, including in the Mesolithic levels. These are mainly portions of carcasses brought in to the rockshelter by scavengers or predators. Therefore, their deposition did not result from human activity. Thus far, no animal bone had been found in direct association with Mesolithic burials in Belgium, and this site conforms to that pattern. Moreover, this interpretation corroborates the archaeological study, which did not uncover any traces of domestic activity in the cave, during either the Mesolithic or the Neolithic. On the other hand, several bone artefacts, including various tools and a pendant, were also identified. With the exception of an isolated artefact, all of these were clearly associated with the Middle Neolithic burial (Michelsberg culture). This is only the fourth Neolithic cave burial to have yielded animal bone artefacts in Belgium. A preliminary micro-wear analysis has confirmed that these objects had been used before being deposited and has allowed us to propose several hypotheses concerning their original use.
RÉSUMÉ

Industrie osseuse et faune intrusive dans les sépultures préhistoriques de l'Abri des Autours.

La fouille de l'Abri des Autours, un abri-sous-roche situé dans le sud de la Belgique, a permis la découverte de trois sépultures humaines, dont deux attribuées au Mésolithique ancien et une au Néolithique moyen. Outre les ossements humains, plus de 200 restes fauniques ont été mis au jour. Une analyse taphonomique a été entreprise afin de déterminer si leur présence résulte d'activités anthropiques et s'ils sont liés aux sépultures. Deux ensembles ont ainsi été distingués. La majorité de la faune correspond en realite a des restes d'animaux retrouves eparpilles dans la grotte, y compris dans les niveaux mesolithiques. Il s'agit principalement d'elements de carcasses d'animaux apportes dans l'abri-sous-roche par des animaux charognards ou predateurs. Leur depot ne resulte donc pas d'activites humaines. Jusqu'a present, aucun reste animal n'a ete retrouve en association directe avec des sepultures mesolithiques en Belgique, ce que ce site confirme. Par ailleurs, cette interpretation corrobore l'etude archeologique qui n'a pas mis en evidence de temoins d'activites domestiques dans la grotte, que ce soit pour le Mesolithique ou le Neolithique. D'autre part, plusieurs objets en matiere animale comprenant divers outils et un pendentif ont ete identifies. A l'exception d'un artefact hors contexte, tous etaient clairement associes a la sepulture du Neolithique moyen (culture Michelsberg). Ce n'est que la quatrieme sepulture neolithique en grotte ayant livre des depots d'artefacts en matiere animale en Belgique. Une etude traceologique preliminaire a confirme que ces objets avaient ete utilises avant leur depot et a permis de proposer quelques hypotheses quant a leur utilisation originelle.

In 2017, the study of the Holocene strata at the mouth of the South Chamber in Denisova Cave was continued. The stratigraphic profile in this part of the cave has revealed eight units – layers 0, and 2–8. Layer 2 yielded archaeological evidence attributed to the Early Iron Age, mostly including pottery fragments and isolated Medieval finds. The greater part of layer 3 had been destroyed by an ancient pit resulting from anthropogenic activities; the filling of the pit contained mixed archaeological assemblages dating to the Early Iron Age and Early Bronze Age. Layers 4 and 5 mainly contained pottery fragments associated with the Afanasievo culture of the Early Bronze Age. Layers 6 and 7 contained lithic artifacts which appear to have been redeposited from the underlying Pleistocene sediments due to the activities of burrowing animals. Layers 0 and 8 turned out to be sterile.