Raw material used in the manufacture of osseous artefacts during the Upper Paleolithic in Portugal Marina Almeida ÉVORA Departamento de História, Arqueologia e Património, FCHS - Universidade do Algarve, Faro – PORTUGAL Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia PhD Studentship / UNIARQ, marevora@gmail.com Introduction In Portugal, the bone tool industry that comes from Upper Paleolithic archaeological sites is very scarce and fragmented when compared with other collections found in archaeological sites from the same chronology in Central and Western Europe. The selection of the raw material was bone and antler, none of the artefacts was made of ivory or horn. The sample comes from 12 archaeological sites located in caves and rockshelters. The majority of theses sites are located in Estremadura, one in Alentejo and another one in Southwestern Algarve. It represents a long human occupation, the earliest date is for Ancient Gravettian, 26 020±320 BP for Gruta do Caldeirão, in Estremadura (Marreiros, 2007, Zilhão, 1997) and 27 720 BP to Vale Boi in Algarve (J. Cascalheira, personal communicaton) and the latest date is for Terminal Magdalenian (9 900±70 BP [Bicho, 1994]) in Abrigo Grande das Bocas in Estremadura. Figure 2: Your capt ion t o go here Discussion Despite only grow once a year, the antler would be available for recollection in nature, but might be easier to arrange it during hunting. In the case of chamois (Rupicapra rupicapra), as it has horns, not antler, its possible use does not depend on seasonality but rather of hunting. The prehistorical hunter-gatherers knew the mechanical properties of each raw material they wanted to used, and they would take that in mind every time they manufactured a tool. They also had in mind the knapping techniques they needed to use in each raw material. It’s much easier to used the diffused direct percussion technique over a long bone (Christensen, 2004) to get some splinters and chips rapidly, then to use it over antler (because antler is much more difficult to break with this technique due to its capability to absorb impacts), as it is much less mineralised than bone. But due to this mechanical property, antler is more indicated to use in tools that need force – like a tip of a spear. This is corroborated with the faunal analysis, already published, from some of the archaeological sites like Lapa do Picareiro, Vale Boi, Gruta do Caldeirão (Davis, 2002, Hockett & Haws, 2009, Manne & Bicho, 2009) which shows that most of the mammal bones were fractured by direct percussion to extract bone marrow. Bone composition makes it a preferred raw material in the production of some osseous artefacts. Its cortical tissue, which is most of the bone, was the most exploited by prehistoric hunter-gatherers to use in the manufacture of its equipment for hunting and fishing (Christensen, 2004). But why are there so few bone tools in portuguese UP archaeological sites? The reasons could be: 1) the use of wood (besides the lithics as flint, quartz, quartzite and greywacke) it was always available (Bicho, 1994, Évora, 2007); 2) these were not all residential sites, so hunter-gatherers would not manufacture bone tool equipment on those locations; 3) it can also be due to the old excavations and selection methods, since most of the fragments comes from old excavations (Évora, 2007). Conclusion Bone and antler were easily available and its acquisition was directly related to food activities. Bone splinters, resulted from direct percussion fractures to extract bone marrow, was exploited to make tools, also the antler from hunting or from recollection in the nature. Artisans knew the mechanical properties of each raw material and which one was the best to use for the desired tool and so they knew which techniques of knapping they should apply when manufacturing an osseous tool. So far, in sites with levels of Gravettian and Solutrean occupation the majority of osseous tools are made of bone, on the other hand, in Magdalenian occupation antler was the preferred raw material. Results The tools found in some collections were used for hunting and fishing, including some tips with narrow and elongated morphology (spindle) made from bone found at the Lapa dos Coelhos in association with fish vertebrae (predominantly trout, salmon and barbel [Almeida et al, 2004]). The same type of tips found in Vale Boi is possibly present in Buraca Grande, also made from bone. Vale Boi has parallels with bone tips used in fish equipment found in Cueva de Nerja (Málaga, Spain). 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(1997)- O Paleolítico Superior da Estremadura Portuguesa, PhD Thesis, 2 volumes, Edições Colibri, Lisboa ACKNOWLEDGMENTS: To Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia and to ICAZ 2010 Organizing Committee. To J. Cascalheira, C. Detry and J. Marreiros for their revision of the text and their suggestions. Vale Boi Caldeirão Cave Lapa da Rainha Lapa do Picareiro Lapa dos Coelhos Casa da Moura Cave Salemas Cave Levels with Gravettian Occupation 33% 61% 6% Antler Bone Indeterminate Levels with Solutrean Occupation 8% 59% 33% Antler Bone Indeterminate Levels with Magdalenean Occupation 61% 30% 9% Antler Bone Indeterminate