engleski

FORAGER ORNAMENTAL TRADITIONS IN THE EASTERN ADRIATIC THROUGH THE LENS OF USE-WEAR AND RESIDUE ANALYSES

Over the last three decades, archaeologists have widely explored the evolutionary implications of the use of bodily adornment in ancient populations and the key role of ornaments such as beads, pendants, appliqués and pigments for understanding social and cultural changes in the past. Recent archaeological investigations in the Eastern Adriatic region, and particularly at the site of Vlakno cave in the island of Dugi Otok (Croatia) have yielded a rich and unique repertoire of organic body adornments made out of animal teeth, marine and freshwater gastropods and shells, which have been ascribed to the end of the Palaeolithic and Mesolithic. The analysis of technological, use-wear and residues preserved on the archaeological ornaments enabled us to define how such organic materials were conceived and used by the foragers of the island to construct social identity. When archaeometric and contextual data related to Vlakno ornaments are discussed in a wider geo-chronological perspective, aspects of continuity as well as variability in manufacturing techniques and in the selection of raw materials suggest body ornaments might have played a key role in expressing different Mesolithic cultural traditions across the Easter Adriatic and the central Balkan regions.

Ornaments, Mesolithic, Adriatic

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