Animal beauty: use of skeletal elements for decorative purposes in the Neolithic in the south-eastern Europe

Abstract

Diverse skeletal elements (bones, antler, teeth, mollusc shells) were widely used for production of diverse artefacts since the Palaeolithic times. They were used for everyday tools and hunting and fishing weapons, but they were also frequently selected for making of decorative items, because of their physical and mechanical properties, but also because they had some symbolic value. In this poster will be presented decorative items made from animal skeletal elements from the Neolithic period in the Balkan area, with special focus on the Early and Middle Neolithic Starčevo culture and Late Neolithic Vinča culture. Although stone and clay were used for jewellery as well, main raw materials were those of animal origin. Analyses of the raw material selection, typological repertoire, as well as symbolic aspects will be explored. Teeth from both wild and domestic species were used for making simple pendants. Bone and antler were used for making diverse buckles, decorative pins, pendants, and some of the ornamental pieces produced are quite extraordinary, in terms of labour, skill and time invested in their production. Particularly interesting is the presence of ornaments made from imported mollusc shells, which were certainly symbols of status and prestige. Ornaments made from osseous raw materials were usually used for long time, sometimes repaired and recycled. Osseous raw materials were chosen for their physical properties – hardness, smooth surfaces and bright, shiny white colour. They also had symbolic value, perhaps linked with these properties, rarity and/or origin from certain animal species. This symbolic value is difficult to reconstruct; it is possible they were used to display individual status and prestige.