Prehistoric antler- and bone tools from Kaposújlak-Várdomb (South-Western Hungary) with special regard to the Early Bronze Age implements (original) (raw)

In this paper, the author presents Late Neolithic (Lengyel culture), Late Copper Age (Pécel-Baden culture), Early Bronze Age (Somogyvár-Vinkovci culture) and Late Bronze Age (Urnfield culture) artefacts made from antler, bone and tusk. The majority of these objects were found at the Early Bronze Age site, the largest fortified settlement established during the period of the Somogyvár-Vinkovci culture (ca. 2500-2300 BC) in Hungary. This assemblage, including 135 artefacts and additional workshop remains, also represents the most abundant collection found at any Early Bronze Age settlement in Hungary. Parallel to the study of artefacts, the archaeozoological analysis of remains representing refuse bones has been also carried out, offering background information about animal husbandry, and the exploitation of various wild species. The abundance of red deer antler implements, blanks and remains representing workshop debitage evidence on site deposition and manufacture of this valued raw material in the Hungarian Bronze Age. The great number of well-made, multi-stage manufacture awls in addition to the various hafted antler implements suggested a different attitude towards bone manufacturing than that found at other coeval settlements. The presentation of the much smaller tool assemblages from the Late Neolithic, Late Copper Age and Late Bronze Age features of the site is restricted here to the short description and summary of tools, and the illustration of the most characteristic specimens.