Personal Ornaments In Prehistory

Measuring the geographical extent of interactions in prehistory through the proxy of material culture has long been a theme of archaeological research and various analytical and interpretational techniques have been proposed to this end. Distributions of both materials and products are used to hypothesise extent of movement, however the nuance of reasons for, and modes of, distribution is more difficult to define within the parameters of archaeological data. Existing narrative paradigms of long-term change often influence views of directionality of movement, a particularly clear case being the movement of early farming groups from Anatolia into Europe. Emphasis on this wider trend has led to the downplaying of ongoing short-term interactions at the regional and interregional scale that can shed light on both relationships between settlements and the scale of multi-directionality in communications. Highly portable beads offer an ideal medium through which to explore short-term multi-directional encounters of the prehistoric period via the traceability of both materials and forms through space and time. Here an example of Neolithic and Chalcolithic blue fluorapatite beads from Turkey is used to think about the impact of simple data collection on archaeological interpretations.

En el jaciment de Banys de la Mercè (Capmany, Girona), els ornaments localitzats no permeten adscriure’ls a individus però sí que ens informen d’aspectes com el tipus d’ornament, la matèria primera, els processos d’elaboració, influències foranes... Durant la prospecció i excavació de les estructures del jaciment es varen localitzar sis ornaments personals, dels que 3 es poden definir com tipus dena de collar, pulsera o turmellera i 3 corresponen a denes-penjoll, tots fets amb pedra. Els ornaments apareixen en les estructures: AB-16-1; AJ-19-1; E3-11, E3-90 i E7 , amb un ventall cronològic que va des de neolític antic, neolític final, bronze inicial i material indeterminada

Recent years have brought many significant changes when talking about research on the Early Iron Age in Poland, also in terms of the chronology method applying to most essential artifacts. Typology schemes and basis of dating process of metal objects, especially so-called Kujawy bronzes, also called ornaments in the Stanomin style are which belong to one of the most important groups that kind, undoubtedly need to be refined and verified. That was the purpose of my museum queries. The presented text is a proposal of new systematic of analyzed Stanomin style ornaments, based on their metric values and clearly defined features collected and described on the ground of these museum research. The proposed typological divisions are based on basic statistical methods and multivariate cluster analysis. The research also uses analysis of the distribution of particular types of bronze artifacts. The text also includes comments about use-wear traces visible on some bronze artifacts and the research potential resulting from the use of these observations in studies on the periodization of the Bronze Age and the Early Iron Age.

Beads, bracelets, necklaces, pendants and many other ornaments are familiar objects that play a fundamental role in personal expression and communication. This book considers how and why the human relationship with ornaments developed and continued over tens of thousands of years, from hunter-gatherer life in the cave to urban elites, from expedient use of natural resources to complex technologies. Using evidence from archaeological sites across Turkey, the Near East and the Balkans, it explores the history of personal ornaments from their appearance in the Palaeolithic until the rise of urban centres in the Early Bronze Age and encompassing technologies ranging from stone cutting to early glazing, metallurgy and the roots of glass manufacture. The development of theoretical and practical approaches to ornaments and the current state of research are illustrated with a wide variety of examples. This book shows that far from being objects of display, of little value in archaeological interpretation and often overlooked, these artefacts are key to understanding trade, relationships, values, beliefs and the construction of personal identity in the past. Indeed, more than any other group of artefacts, their variety in material, form, use and distribution opens doors to both wide ranging scientific exploration and consideration of what it is to be human.

The use of space inside La Peña de Estebanvela Rock-shelter and the activities carried out away from the site are analysed in this article in order to reconstruct the economic and social behaviour of the human group that occupied the site in the Upper Magdalenian (15,010e14,610 cal BP and 14,290e13,730 cal BP). Level III, which is geologically homogeneous and has yielded a large lithic and faunal record was selected for this purpose. The micro-spatial analysis of the level has differentiated two significant units in the central sector of the deposit which may correspond to an area used for intensive flint knapping (Unit 2), and a multi-functional area where hunting weapons were prepared, prey was butchered and defleshed, and hides were processed (Unit 3). The study of the use of the territory around the site reveals a strategy Economic behaviour of diversified hunting, especially between late spring and earlyautumn, oriented towards ibex, horse, red deer and, to a lesser extent, chamois, roe deer and lynxes. This activity was complemented by the use of other resources, like fishing and gathering plants. Stocks of flint and personal ornaments made from marine molluscs confirm the territorial mobility of the residents of La Peña de Estebanvela.

Con el fin de obtener una visión más amplia y certera de las actividades desarrolladas por los grupos humanos del Paleolítico superior, la arqueología experimental se viene configurando. en los últimos años, como parte esencial de cualquier investigación prehistórica. En este trabajo se presenta el diseño, la realiza­ción y los resultados de diferentes protocolos experimentales, que responden a cuestiones tanto de tipo tecnológico como funcional, con el objetivo de elaborar una serie de criterios que nos permitan obtener información sobre las trazas de fabricación y ele uso presentes en los materiales arqueológicos.

Beads are a communication technology used by humans to transmit information on the wearer identity to members of the same or neighbouring groups by means of a shared symbolic language. Here we focus on the earliest evidence from Eastern Asia of a communication technology – the production of artificially coloured beads – that has allowed humans to further complexify the messages conveyed by personal ornaments, and associate, to some extent, the performance characteristics of beads and pigment. We study six ochred ostrich eggshell beads (OESB) from Shuidonggou Locality 2 (SDG2), Cultural Layer (CL) 2, China, dated to c. 31 kyr cal BP. Analysis of the beads manufacturing technique, size, and wear, combined with SEM-EDS and µ-Raman spectroscopy (µ-RS) study of well-preserved red residues sampled on the beads and sediment from CL2 indicate that these beads come from body ornaments and that red residues are the remnant of a pigmented compound coating the beads at the time they were worn by the SDG Palaeolithic visitors. SDG2-CL2 red stained OESBs thus represent, with the red stained bone disk from Xiaogushan, the earliest consistent evidence of pigment use for symbolic activities from China. Results also identify variations in the composition of the pigmental compound used to colour the beads that closely match differences in bead technology, size, and style. We argue that such a hitherto unknown consistency in bead production and decoration may reflect technological, morphological, and pigment coating standardisation at the individual level, standardisation in technology associated with variation in morphology and pigment at the group level, and substantial differences in these three domains at inter-group level.

В статье представлены результаты исследования планиграфического и стратиграфического контекста, технологии производства и функций изделий из серпентина-антигорита, обнаруженных в археологическом комплексе раннего верхнего палеолита на памятнике Усть-Каракол в Горном Алтае. Установлено, что эти украшения оформлялись непосредственно на стоянке в рамках единого процесса производственной деятельности. Артефакты несут следы фрагментации на стадии создания преформы или на заключительном этапе оформления; свидетельства утилизационного износа отсутствуют. Операционная последовательность изготовления украшений включала получение заготовок, биконическое сверление и шлифовку. Ввиду хрупкости использовавшегося сырья сверление преформ предшествовало их шлифовке. Данный подход характерен и для обработки других хрупких поделочных материалов, в частности скорлупы яиц страуса, широко распространенной в палеолите Северной и Центральной Азии. Реконструированные приемы производства серпентиновых украшений относятся к технологическому репертуару носителей усть-каракольского индустриального варианта ранней стадии верхнего палеолита Алтая. Изучение петрографического состава магматических пород Бащелакского и Ануйского хребтов позволило установить, что серпентиновое сырье могло иметь местное происхождение. В качестве потенциальных источников рассматриваются местонахождения габброидов, связанные с девонскими и пермскими проявлениями магматизма в этом районе.
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We describe the spatial context, technology, and possible function of serpentine-antigorite artifacts discovered at the Ust-Karakol Early Upper Paleolithic site in the Altai Mountains. The ornaments were made locally under a single manufacturing process. They were fragmented either at the preform stage or at the stage of final trimming. There are no use-wear traces. The chaîne opératoire included the preparation of blanks, biconical drilling, and polishing. Because the material is fragile, drilling of preforms preceded their polishing. This approach was also used with artifacts made of other fragile materials, such as ostrich eggshell, widely employed in the Paleolithic of North and Central Asia. Reconstructed techniques of manufacturing serpentine ornaments belong to the technological repertoire of the Early Upper Paleolithic Ust-Karakol tradition in the Altai. The petrographic analysis of magmatic rocks of the Bashchelak and Anuy mountain ranges suggests that serpentine could have been local. The potential sources include gabbroid deposits related to Devonian and Permian magmatism of the region.

Vasilyevka II cemetery dated to the late 8th—7th millennium cal BC was excavated by Abram Stolyar in 1953. Its anthropological materials are among the most studied in the Dnieper Rapids region. On the basis of their analysis, ideas were put forward about two craniological groups of the Meso-Neolithic population in the area, the significant role of plant food (including cereals) in the nutrition of some inhabitants, the possible presence of migrants among the latter. The development of these ideas is hindered by the extreme scarcity of data about the cemetery and inventory due to the lack of field reports and publication, as well as the loss of the finds.
Generalization of all available information and searching for analogues has enabled to suggest that several bearers of the Middle Danube Lepenski Vir culture were buried in the cemetery. This is indicated by mentions of numerous perforated cyprinid pharyngeal teeth and spiral shells of mollusks of possibly Mediterranean origin. Such beads of fish teeth are also found nearby in the cemetery of Skelya-Kamenolomnya. The proposed hypothesis is indirectly confirmed by similar funerary rites and craniological characteristics of the buried from Vasilyevka II and the Mesolithic settlements in the Iron Gates, the presence of carriers of the same DNA groups there, the frequent records of torus mandibularis and common δ13C values which are not typical for the buried in other Dnieper Rapids cemeteries.

L’étude suivante fut réalisée dans le cadre d’un master portant sur les objets de parure préhistoriques issus de plusieurs gisements de l’île de la Guadeloupe en 2015. L’objectif était de proposer un classement typologique des objets de parures précolombiens dans la Caraïbe. Les objets ayant servi de corpus d’étude, sont conservés au musée Edgar Clerc qui se trouve sur la commune du Moule en Guadeloupe. Ils sont bien représentatifs des parures précolombiennes que l’on peut mettre au jour dans l’aire Caraïbe. Plusieurs critères sont définis pour parvenir à classer chaque objet de manière homogène. Il est à noter que le premier type défini correspond à des ornements pour des statues anthropomorphes tandis que les deux autres types correspondent à des éléments de parure ayant pour but de mettre en valeur la personne qui la porte, de faire passer un message ou de perpétuer une tradition.

The following study was realized within the framework of a research Master's degree concerning the prehistoric objects of finery from several archeological sites of the island of Guadeloupe. The objective was to propose a typological classification. Objects which served for the study, are kept to the museum Edgar Clerc on the municipality of Le Moule in Guadeloupe. They are very representative pre-Colombian adornment which we can discover during archeological excavations in the Caribbean area. Several criteria are defined to achieve a uniform classification of each object. It should be noted that the first type defined corresponds to ornaments for anthropomorphic statues while the other two types correspond to ornaments intended to enhance the person wearing them, to convey a message or to perpetuate a tradition.

El siguiente estudio se realizó en el marco de un máster sobre los objetos de adorno prehistóricos procedentes de varios yacimientos de la isla de Guadalupe. El objetivo era proponer una clasificación tipológica. Los objetos que han servidos para el estudio, son conservados en el museo Edgar Clerc que se encuentra sobre el municipio de Le Moule en Guadalupe. Son muy representativos adornos precolombinos que se puede descubrir durante excavaciones arqueologicas en el área Caribe. Se definen varios criterios para lograr una clasificación homogénenea de cada objeto. Cabe señalar que el primer tipo definido corresponde a ornamentos para estatuas antropomorfas, mientras que los otros dos tipos corresponden a elementos de adorno que tienen por objeto poner de relieve a la persona que lo lleva, transmitir un mensaje o perpetuar una tradición.

The doctoral dissertation „From individuality to regionality in the distribution area of tarand cemeteries in the Roman Iron Age“ explores the affiliation of people who lived in the distribution area of tarand cemeteries and used those cemeteries in the Roman Iron Age (ca first four centuries AD) on the individual, communal and regional levels. Tarand cemeteries are monumental communal stone burial places where burials and artefacts are commingled, fragmented and thus identifying single burials is difficult. The individual level was distinguished based on the presence of bone clusters that could refer to individual episodes in the burial of the deceased, which distinguished them from others buried in the cemetery. The ones buried into tarand cemeteries probably belonged to the higher strata of the society because they were buried into the monumental cemeteries, often with elaborate grave goods during time-consuming and multi-stage rituals. In Viimsi I cemetery a correlation of male individuals and crossbow brooches was present; thus, some social groups could have worn specific ornaments. Also, bones of the deceased and grave goods were often deposited to a specific area in the cemetery. The fixed spatial arrangement refers to established patterns of practices maintained over centuries. Burying to tarand cemeteries was a part of the collective identity of the community. On a regional level, it was distinguished that different ornaments were preferred in specific regions. Wearing those ornaments may have been important to differ from other regional groups. The ornaments also could have held different social meanings when used in a specific context. Local culture was influenced by long-distance contacts with southern areas, especially with the eastern and south-eastern coastal areas of the Baltic Sea. Since the third century, connections with Eastern Europe rose as well. Selected new forms of ornaments were adopted into the regional culture, new versions were created and developed according to the local context.

Le site Ostojićevo-Stari Vinogradi se trouve à proximité de la ville de Kikinda, au nord-est de la Serbie. Les recherches ont révélé l’une des plus grandes nécropoles de l’âge du bronze en Serbie, avec 285 tombeaux, appartenant à l’âge du bronze ancien et moyen. 77 tombeaux appartiennent à la culture de Maros de l’âge du bronze ancien ; dans 25 tombeaux on a trouvé de la parure en matières dures animales. On a utilisé des matières dures animales diverses : os, bois du cerf, dents et coquillages. Le répertoire typologique comprend des perles, pendentifs, aiguilles décoratives et appliquées. Les objets les plus fréquents sont les pendentifs, fabriqués des dents et les perles, fabriquées en os. Ces ornements présentent des analogies très fortes avec d’autres nécropoles de la culture de Maros, comme Mokrin, suggérant qu’ils faisaient partie d’un comportement culturel largement adopté et avaient probablement une signification symbolique largement acceptée.