Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-94fs2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-02T23:33:40.120Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

A Middle Palaeolithic bone tool from Crimea (Ukraine)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Ariane Burke
Affiliation:
Département d'Anthropologie, Université de Montréal, BP 6128 Centre-Ville, Montréal, QC, H3C 3J7, Canada
Francesco d'Errico
Affiliation:
Institut de Préhistoire et de Géologie du Quaternaire, CNRS UMR 5199 PACEA, Université Bordeaux 1, avenue des Facultés, F-33405 Talence, France

Abstract

A fragment of equid tibia found with a Mousterian assemblage in a rockshelter in the Crimean peninsula is carefully examined. The authors show that it has been knapped like flint to produce a tool probably at a time when stone resources were becoming exhausted. This tool is thus the product of a Neanderthal response to a local need as well as proof that the technological properties of bone were known.

Type
Research
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd 2008

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Armand, D. & Delagnes, A.. 1998. Les retouchoirs en os d'Artenac (couche 6c): perspectives archéozoologiques, taphonimiques et expérimentales, in Brugel, P., Meignen, L. & Patou-Mathis, M. (ed.) Economie préhistorique: les comportements de subsistance au paléolithique: 205–14. Sophia Antipolis: APDCA.Google Scholar
Backwell, L. R. & d'Errico, F.. 2001. From the cover: evidence of termite foraging by Swartkrans early hominids. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 98: 1358–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Backwell, L. R. 2004. The first use of bone tools: a reappraisal of the evidence from Olduvai Gorge. Palaeontologia Africana 40: 89152.Google Scholar
Backwell, L. R., d'Errico, F. & Wadley, L.. 2008. Middle stone Age bone tools from the Howiesons Poort layers, Sibudu Cave, South Africa. Journal of Archaeological Science 35: 1559–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bailey, S. E. & Hublin, J.-J.. 2006. Dental remains from the Grotte du Renne at Arcy-sur-Cure (Yonne). Journal of Human Evolution 50: 485508.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bar-Oz, G. & Adler, D. S.. 2005. Taphonomic history of the Middle and Upper Palaeolithic faunal assemblage from Ortvale Klde, Georgian Republic. Journal of Taphonomy 3(4): 185211.Google Scholar
Brain, C. K. & Shipman, P.. 1993. The Swartkrans bone tools, in Brain, C. K. (ed.) Swartkrans: a cave's chronicle of Early Man: 195215. Pretoria: Transvaal Museum.Google Scholar
Burke, A. 1999a. Butchering and scavenging at the Middle Paleolithic site of Starosele, in Chabai, V. & Monigal, K. (ed.) Palaeolithic of Western Crimea: 129. Liège: ERAUL.Google Scholar
Burke, A. 1999b. Kabazi V: faunal exploitation at a Middle Paleolithic rockshelter in Western Crimea, in Chabai, V. & Monigal, K. (ed.) Palaeolithic of Western Crimea: 2940. Lièege: ERAUL.Google Scholar
Burke, A. 2000. The view from Starosele. International Journal of Osteoarchaeology 10: 325–35.3.0.CO;2-T>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burke, A. 2004. Karabi Tamchin: faunal remains, in Chabai, V. P., Monigal, K. & Marks, A. E. (ed.) The Middle Paleolithic and Early Upper Paleolithic of Eastern Crimea: 276–82. Liège: ERAUL.Google Scholar
Chase, P. G. 1990. Tool-making tools and Middle Paleolithic behavior. Current Anthropology 31: 443–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
d'errico, F. & Backwell, L. R.. 2003. Possible evidence of bone tool shaping by Swartkrans early hominids. Journal of Archaeological Science 30: 1559–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
D'Errico, F. & Henshilwood, C. S.. 2007. Additional evidence for bone technology in the southern Africa Middle Stone Age. Journal of Human Evolution 52: 142–63.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
d'Errico, R. & Villa, P.. 1997. Holes and grooves: the contribution of microscopy and taphonomy to the problem of art origins. Journal of Human Evolution 33: 131.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
d'Errico, F., Zilhao, J., Julien, M., Baffier, D. & Pelegrin, J.. 1998. Neanderthal acculturation in Western Europe?: a critical review of the evidence and its interpretation. Current Anthropology 39: S144.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
d'Errico, F., Henshilwood, C., Lawson, G., Vanhaeren, M., Tillier, A.-M., Soressi, M., Bresson, F., Maureille, B., Nowell, A., Lakarra, J., Backwell, L. & Julien, M.. 2003. Archaeological evidence for the emergence of language, symbolism, and music – an alternative multidisciplinary perspective. Journal of World Prehistory 17: 170.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Enloe, J., David, F. & Baryshnikov, G.. 2000. Hyenas and hunters: zooarchaeological investigations at Prolom II Cave, Crimea. International Journal of Osteoarchaeology 10: 310–24.3.0.CO;2-B>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gaudzinski, S. 1995. Wallertheim revisited: a re-analysis of the fauna from the Middle Palaeolithic site of Wallertheim (Rheinhessen/Germany). Journal of Archaeological Science 22: 5166.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Henshilwood, C. S. & Marean, C. W.. 2003. The origin of modern human behavior: critique of the models and their test implications. Current Anthropology 44: 627–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Henshilwood, C. S., d'Errico, F., Marean, C. W., Milo, R. G. & Yates, R.. 2002. An early bone tool industry from the Middle Stone Age at Blombos Cave, South Africa: implications for the origins of modern human behaviour, symbolism and language. Journal of Human Evolution 41: 631–78.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Klein, R. G. 1994. The problem of modern human origins, in Nitecki, M. H. & Nitecki, D. V. (ed.) Origins of anatomically modern humans. New York: Plenum.Google Scholar
Knecht, H. 1997. Projectile technology. New York: Plenum.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lalourandie, V. & d'Errico, F.. 2004. Worked bones from Buran-Kaya III Level C and their taphonomic context, in Chabai, V. P., Monigal, K. & Marks, A. E. (ed.) The Middle Paleolithic and Early Upper Paleolithic of Eastern Crimea: 8394. Liège: ERAUL.Google Scholar
Leakey, M. D. 1971. Olduvai Gorge: excavations in Beds I and II. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
McBrearty, S. & Brooks, A.. 2000. The revolution that wasn't: a new interpretation of the origin of modern human behavior. Journal of Human Evolution 39: 453563.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mellars, P. (ed.) 1996. The Neanderthal legacy. Princeton (NJ): Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Noble, W. & Davidson, I.. 1996. Human evolution, language and mind: a psychological and archaeological inquiry. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Patou-Mathis, M. 2002. Retouchoirs, compresseurs, percuteurs: os à impressions et éraillures. Paris: Société Préhistorique Française.Google Scholar
Patou-Mathis, M. 2004. Archaeozoological analysis of large mammals of Chokurcha I Unit IV, in Chabai, V. P., Monigal, K. & Marks, A. E. (ed.) The Middle Paleolithic and Early Upper Paleolithic of Eastern Crimea: 355–70. Liège: ERAUL.Google Scholar
Patou-Mathis, M. & Chabai, V.. 2003. Kabazi II (Crimée, Ukraine): un site d'abattage et de boucherie du Paléolithique moyen. L'Anthropologie. 107: 223–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rabinovich, R. & Hovers, E.. 2004. Faunal analysis from Amud Cave: preliminary results and interpretations. International Journal of Osteoarchaeology 14: 287306.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shipman, P. 1984. The earliest tools: re-assessing the evidence from Olduvai Gorge. Anthroquest 29: 910.Google Scholar
Shipman, P. 1989. Altered bone from Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania: techniques, problems, and implications of their recognition, in Bonnichsen, R. & Sorg, M. H. (ed.) Bone modification: 317–34. Orono (ME): University of Maine.Google Scholar
Stepanchuk, V. N. 1993. Prolom II, a Middle Paleolithic site in the Eastern Crimea with non-utilitarian bone artefacts. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 59: 1737.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stringer, C. & Gamble, C. S.. 1993. In search of the Neanderthals. London: Thames & Hudson.Google Scholar
Villa, P. & Bartram, L.. 1996. Flaked bone from a hyena den. Paleo 8: 143–59.Google Scholar
Villa, P. & D'errico, F.. 2001. Bone and ivory points in the Lower and Middle Paleolithic of Europe. Journal of Human Evolution 41: 69112.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Vincent, A. 1988. L'os comme artéfact au Paléolithique moyen: principes d'étude et premiers résultats. L'Homme de Néanderthal 4: 185–96.Google Scholar
Yevtushenko, A. 2004. Karabi Tamchin: lithics from selected levels, in Chabai, V. P., Monigal, K. & Marks, A. E. (ed.) The Middle Paleolithic and Early Upper Paleolithic of Eastern Crimea: 307–42. Liège: ERAUL.Google Scholar
Yevtushenko, A., Burke, A., Ferring, R., Chabai, V. & Monigal, K.. 2003. The Middle Palaeolithic site of Karabi Tamchin (Crimea, Ukraine): 1999–2001 excavation seasons. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 69: 137–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yevtushenko, A., Burke, A. & Ferring, R.. 2004. The site of Karabi Tamchin: introduction, in Chabai, V. P., Monigal, K. & Marks, A. E. (ed.) The Middle Paleolithic and Early Upper Paleolithic of Eastern Crimea: 277–82. Liège: ERAUL.Google Scholar
Zilhão, J. & d'Errico, F.. 2000. La nouvelle 'bataille aurignacienne': une révision critique de la chronologie du Châtelperronien et de l'Aurignacien ancien. L'Anthropologie 104: 1750.CrossRefGoogle Scholar