Handle with Care: Handles, Hafts and Sleeves from Osseous Material in the Starčevo Culture

Abstract

Osseous raw materials are very convenient for variety of purposes; they can be easily transformed into an efficient tool or to deadly weapon, they can be carved into various forms and transformed into objects of art or into ornaments. They can also be effectively used as handles or sleeves for tools made from diverse materials. However, it is not always easy to identify them if the inserted tool is not preserved. In this paper will be presented the assemblage of handles from the Early Neolithic Starčevo culture sites in Serbia: the problems of identification, their morphological variety and technological choices will be discussed. These examples show variety in raw materials –diverse segments of long bones or antler. Their dimensions suggest that most of them may have been used for slender pointed tools and for tools of relatively small width (for example, pointed bone tools, chipped stone tools, small stone chisels, etc.).