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- Title
Round antler rods: particular osseous artefacts of the Central European Magdalenian with unknown function.
- Authors
PFEIFER, Sebastian J.
- Abstract
The scope of this article is to discuss some particular osseous tools of the Central European Magdalenian. Several sites from Switzerland in the west to the Czech Republic in the east furnished long, overall modified antler rods with doublebevelled bases and rounded cross sections made on transversal segments (en volume). A comparison with other antler tools which occasionally were made on transversal segments as well, in particular fore-shafts and projectile points, suggests that these round rods could be a distinct artefact type. Chronologically, they seem to prevail in the Upper Magdalenian and thus coincide with the appearance of the multi-barbed point in the osseous toolkit. One possible interpretation could therefore be that they worked as socket pieces for multi-barbed points in a harpoon-like thrusting weapon. Other possible functions are counterweights attached to hand-held lances or snow/ice probes. However, since round rods are typical for big sites with evidence of ritual behaviour and symbolic communication, these often quite delicate artefacts could also have played a primarily non-utilitarian role.
- Subjects
SWITZERLAND; CENTRAL Europe; ANTIQUITIES; SYMBOLIC communication; MAGDALENIAN culture
- Publication
Quartär, 2018, Issue 65, p63
- ISSN
0375-7471
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.7485/QU65_3