Savaria - A Vas Megyei Múzeumok értesítője 30. (2006) (Szombathely, 2007)

Régészet - Choyke, Alice: A mindennapi élet és halál árnyjátékai: Gór–Kápolnadomb a proto-lengyeli kultúrában

Savaria a Vas megyei Múzeumok Értesítője, 30 (2006) Manufacturing technique: Typically for the Late Neolithic the metatarsal was grooved with a flint tool like a burin through the cortical bone into the medullary cavity and across the epiphyses. It was then broken in half. The half bone was then quartered again using a similar technique. Such careful, deliberate manufacturing requires both skill and experience and is less often encountered in bone tool assemblages either before or after the Late Neolithic in Europe. Rough surfaces at the break and the tip were then formed by grinding with an abrasive material like sandstone. Use wear: The marks of the cutting and grinding are barely visible due to strong handling polish at the base end. It must have taken many years for the handling wear to develop as well. These strict rules of raw material choice and manufacture are typical of what has elsewhere been described as planned or Class I objects (CHOYKE 1997b, 2001). Re-working: The surface of this particular tool, has a slightly weathered surface now impeding good observation. Clear marks of recent re-working (Figure 2) can be observed at the tip. The original tool could easily have been more than twice as long. This object must have been used for a long period, for example in coiled basketmaking. There is no evidence that it was used in more robust activities involving percussion such as punching through thick hide (LEGRAND and CHRISTIDOU 2005) and which would have resulted rapid transformation of the awl as it was broken and repaired frequently. Even the extreme tip is still intact. 2. Small ruminant metapodium awl with flat base: (Schibler type 1/2, 1981). Measurements: GL= 161.0 mm; GB= 10.8 mm; GD= 5.9 mm; LSD= 14.7 mm; Btip= 1.7 mm; Dtip= 158.0 mm. Roe deer metatarsal {Capreolus capreolus Linnaeus 1758) metatarsal, proximal fragment (Figurelb). Upper part of feature 1 (-70 cm) Manufacturing technique: Typically for the Late Neolithic, roe deer metatarsus was used in the manufacture of this elegantly produced tool type. Aside from the fact that visually the tool is more elongated and has a nice appearance there is no advantage to making this awl from roe deer as opposed to sheep or goat metatarsal. Although one frequently encounters the idea that bone from wild animals is harder and more robust than bone from domesticates of similar sizes, in this period sheep or goats would have been kept extensively and been quite as hardy as animals living in the wild. The end of Neolithic saw an increase in hunting activities across Western Europe. In Switzerland this increase in wild animals in faunal assemblages from Late Neolithic archaeological sites seems to be related to degradation in the climate. Crops failed and calories were made up by increased wild plant gathering and hunting (SCHIBLER et al. 1997b, 2004). Something similar may be going on at the end of the Neolithic in Hungary although late Neolithic sites are centuries earlier than the Swiss settlement. In any case, finds of roe deer as a game animal end almost completely in following periods in Hungary. Sheep and goat metatarsals were used almost exclusively instead as the raw materials for this tool type (CHOYKE in press). These metatarsals are shorter and stouter, lacking the elongated elegance of the roe deer metatarsal and the awls are commensurately shorter as well. 97