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New finds of Upper Palaeolithic decorative objects from Předmostí, Czech Republic

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Rebecca Farbstein
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3DZ, UK
Jiříp Svoboda
Affiliation:
Institute of Archaeology, Paleolithic and Paleoethnology Research Center, 69129 Dolní Věstonice, Czech Republic

Extract

Two new examples of decorative art have turned up at the Gravettian site of Předmostí, dating to the twenty-sixth to twenty-fifth millennium BP: rectilinear grid patterns are executed on one side of flat bones, probably of reindeer. The authors speculate that the two pieces may have come from a single larger decorated object. The grids themselves join a growing repertoire of patterns known from Upper Palaeolithic society, but their role remains enigmatic: counting, calendars or ornament? Art or science?

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd. 2007

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