Bone technology in the Late Neolithic Vinča culture: Manufacturing pointed tools

Abstract

The bone industry of the Late Neolithic / Early Eneolithic Vinča culture was rich and diverse; different osseous raw materials (diverse skeletal elements) were used for the production of everyday items, weapons and ornaments. The selection of raw materials was usually strict – certain skeletal elements were consistently used for specific artefact types, often depending on their physical properties. The manufacturing techniques display a certain level of standardisation, in particular, the most common tool type, medium-sized pointed tools (awls), was generally produced by using the same manufacturing techniques and resulting in more or less standardised products. In this paper, an overview will be provided of manufacturing techniques used for the production of pointed tools from several Vinča culture sites: Vitkovo, Pločnik and Vinča – Belo Brdo, reconstruction of the chaîne opératoire, the morphological features of the subtypes and variants, and their overall cultural and economic importance will be discussed.