Crude adzes. Focus on special and unknown artefact type
Résumé
This paper aims to make known a curious type of artefact made of a long broken bone whose epiphysis is used as a handle, and
the break as a cutting edge. Because no further shaping generally occurs, its aspect does not differ from a faunal remain. For this
reason, it has rarely been seen as an artefact.
The first items were identified in Syrian (at the end of PPNa), Jordanian, Anatolian and Iranian (PPNb) collections. Some were
found in the south-eastern Early European Neolithic and many in the Early Chalcolithic from Bulgaria. Others have been also
discovered in the western European Neolithic (Linear Pottery Culture).
Because of their extraordinary spread and their long-lasting existence, which follow the Neolithic diffusion, these artifacts deserve
to be described in detail so as to help researchers to identify them and further document their chronological and geographical
distribution. They also address the question of their manufacture, whose simplicity contrasts strongly with the very elaborated
other artefacts within the assemblages they lie in. Their function, for which several hypothesis have been suggested, are also
investigated. All these questions will be treated here based on an illustrated description of this artifact type.
the break as a cutting edge. Because no further shaping generally occurs, its aspect does not differ from a faunal remain. For this
reason, it has rarely been seen as an artefact.
The first items were identified in Syrian (at the end of PPNa), Jordanian, Anatolian and Iranian (PPNb) collections. Some were
found in the south-eastern Early European Neolithic and many in the Early Chalcolithic from Bulgaria. Others have been also
discovered in the western European Neolithic (Linear Pottery Culture).
Because of their extraordinary spread and their long-lasting existence, which follow the Neolithic diffusion, these artifacts deserve
to be described in detail so as to help researchers to identify them and further document their chronological and geographical
distribution. They also address the question of their manufacture, whose simplicity contrasts strongly with the very elaborated
other artefacts within the assemblages they lie in. Their function, for which several hypothesis have been suggested, are also
investigated. All these questions will be treated here based on an illustrated description of this artifact type.
Domaines
Archéologie et Préhistoire
Origine :
Fichiers produits par l'(les) auteur(s)
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