Retracing Missing Late Glacial Human Occupations in Baltic: The Contribution of the Bone Industry with Special Emphasis of the Preboreal Zvejnieki site (Latvia)
Résumé
At the Zvejnieki settlement site (Latvia) , the presence of harpoons is surprising considering that this type of tool hardly ever occurs in other contemporary North European assemblages (David 2003-a). Beside their morphological aspects which suggest their attribution to the earlier chrono-cultural stage of the Latvian Epipalaeolithic (Zagorska 2000), other interesting features which provide complementary data for further interpretation have also been observed on the industry from the lower horizon of the site dated to the Preboreal (Zagorska and Zagorski 1990). In fact, some tools have been manufactured on ancient tools, instead of being made, as it is usual for Mesolithic industry, on natural bones used as primary matrix. It is called a tool reshaped "in a second intention", because a long time may have passed between the use of the initial tool and its reappropriation for manufacture and use again. On the site, it involves items which evoke Epipalaeolithic-like types, such as some other harpoons and also two pieces, showing opposite zones with a scratched aspect, called retouchoirs (Malerba and Giacobini 2002). These have been reshaped, in second intention, into chisels (narrow and large) and gouge, which represent, besides hunting gear with an undetachable hafting, the most common manufactured items in the Early Mesolithic in the North European plains. From all possible interpretations which have been suggested about this (David 2003-b:110), one of our hypotheses has been recently supported by new geological and palynological investigations in the area which might indicate a rapid erosion of anthropogenic soils identified from the Late Dryas chronozone (Eberhards ; Kalnina, in print). Considering that an earlier archaeological horizon existed in Zvejnieki, just eroded at the time of arrival of the Mesolithic inhabitants, relatively "fresh" bone material was then available for use. The Early Mesolithic tool-makers could indeed have taken some tools just uncovered from the stripped Epipalaeolithic layers and used them as an extra raw material. Thus, the Zvejnieki manufactured material provides interesting new evidence for the emblematic Epipalaeolithic-Mesolithic transition in nordic regions. It is then only an opportunistic behaviour of Mesolithic tool-makers that enables us to record Epipalaeolithic occupations whose settlement sites have probably been destroyed due to drastic changes in environmental conditions in the Late glacial. David, E. 2003a. The contribution of a technological study of bone and antler industry for the Definition of the Early Maglemose Culture. In: Larsson, L., Kindgren, H., Knutsson, K., Loeffler, D. & Åkerlund, A. (eds.) Mesolithic on the Move, Meso 2000. Papers presented at The 6th International Conference on the Mesolithic in Europe. Oxbow Books. Oxford, 649-657. David, E. 2003b. The Mesolithic Zvejnieki Site (Latvia) in its european context: preliminary results delivered by a technological study of bone and antler industry. Journal of Estonian Archaeology 7:2, 99-122 Malerba, G. & Giacobini, G. 2002. Fiche éclats diaphysaires avec marques transversales d'utilisation. Industrie de l'os préhistorique. Cahier X, Compresseurs, Percuteurs, Retouchoirs. Paris, Société Préhistorique Française, 29-37. Zagorska, I. 2000. The Earliest Settlement of Latvia. Pact 57, 1-6, 131-156. Zagorska, I. & Zagorskis, F. 1990. The Bone and Antler Inventory from Zvejnieki II, Latvian SSR. In: Bonsall C. (ed.) The Mesolithic in Europe. Papers presented at The Third International Symposium. Edinburgh, 414-421.
