rusinowo the symbolic culture of foragers in the late palaeolithic and the early mesolithic

201 Pages·2017·49.1 MB·English

RUSINOWO
THE SYMBOLIC CULTURE OF FORAGERS
IN THE LATE PALAEOLITHIC AND THE EARLY MESOLITHIC

UNIVERSITY OF WROCŁAW
INSTITUTE OF ARCHAEOLOGY
RUSINOWO
THE SYMBOLIC CULTURE OF FORAGERS
IN THE LATE PALAEOLITHIC
AND THE EARLY MESOLITHIC
Edited by
Tomasz Płonka, Krzysztof Kowalski
Wrocław 2017
Reviewers
Jacek Kabaciński, Mirosław Masojć
Technical preparation and computer layout
Włodzimierz Bieroński
Cover design
Nicole Lenkow
Translated by
Anna Kinecka
Proofreading
Małgorzata Wieliczko
© Copyright by University of Wrocław, Institute of Archaeology, Wrocław 2017
ISBN 978-83-61416-10-4
University of Wrocław
Institute of Archaeology
ul. Szewska 48, 50-139 Wrocław
e-mail: [email protected]
internet: http://www.archeo.uni.wroc.pl
Printing and binding
I-BiS. Usługi komputerowe. Wydawnictwo s.c.
Andrzej Bieroński, Przemysław Bieroński
Sztabowa 32, 53-505 Wrocław
CONTENTS
Introduction (Tomasz Płonka, Krzysztof Kowalski) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Chapter 1. Circumstances of the discovery and the search for the deposition context of the orna-
mented antler artefact (Krzysztof Kowalski, Tomasz Płonka) . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Chapter 2. Environment. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
2.1. Site stratigraphy and palaeogeography (Andrzej Piotrowski, Jarmila Krzymińska, Paweł
Sydor, Urszula Pączek, Bernard Cedro) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
2.2. The vegetation in the light of palynological studies (Małgorzata Malkiewicz) . . . . 33
2.3. Studies on a raw material. The Eurasian elk in Central Europe at the end of the Pleistocene
(Krzysztof Stefaniak, Urszula Ratajczak, Magdalena Ciombor) . . . . . . . . . 43
Chapter 3. Cultural milieu. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
3.1. Manufacturing techniques and use (Marcin Diakowski, Bernadeta Kufel-Diakowska) 53
3.2. Execution of the ornament (Marcin Diakowski, Tomasz Płonka). . . . . . . . . 71
3.3. The use of the artefact in the light of archaeometric studies . . . . . . . . . . . 117
3.3.1. The surface of the artefact (Joanna Trąbska, Aleksandra Wesełucha-Birczyńska,
Barbara Trybalska, Adam Gaweł) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
3.3.2. The residue filling the lines of the ornament (Joanna Trąbska, Barbara Trybalska) 147
Chapter 4. Symbolic artefacts in the Late Palaeolithic and the early Mesolithic in Northern and
Central Europe (Tomasz Płonka, Krzysztof Kowalski) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
Closing remarks (Tomasz Płonka, Krzysztof Kowalski). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187

Rusinowo. The Symbolic Culture of Foragers in the Late Palaeolithic
and the Early Mesolithic. T. Płonka, K. Kowalski (eds.) Wrocław 2017, p. 7–9
DOI: 10.23734/22.17.039
TOMASZ PŁONKA, KRZYSZTOF KOWALSKI
INTRODUCTION
Ornamented artefacts associated with a symbolic cultu- Kopytoff 1986), because we have neither oral evidence
re of foragers are among the rearest archaeological di- nor written records to allow a fuller reconstruction of
scoveries made in Central and Northern Europe. Most the manufacture of the artefact, the manner of its use
of these exceptional pieces did not survive to our day; and finally, its discarding, complete with the subtle so-
they deteriorated because bone and antler - the material cial context of how it functioned within the community.
they were mainly made of – decompose easily. Only Our biographies are constructed for the most part (but
a very small number of these artefacts found within not exclusively) on the basis of archaeological sources.
deposits with a limited oxygen access have survived to The functioning of individual objects within a culture
our times in varying degree of completeness. Some of could be described by us also as “object genealogies”
them are still resting within their stratigraphic context (Kowalski 2001, 126), but the term biography seems to
and only very few have seen the light of day, unfortu- us more comprehensive because it accounts better for
nately mostly in consequence of random discoveries the dynamics of the process of formation of this type of
made when digging rather than during regular archa- objects and their variable history. Cultural biographies
eological excavation. For all the above reasons every of objects differ from the history of their use in that
find of a piece of art from those distant ages rouses in the latter artefacts are treated as passive objects of
understandable interest of specialists and persuades the human activity whereas the former focus more on the
initiation of multi-faceted studies of an interdisciplina- relationships between the products and their users, in
ry nature to enable a comprehensive understanding of other words, describe how they “lived” and functioned
such an artefact. within a social group (Gosden, Marshall 1999; Joy 2009).
It is no wonder therefore that the discovery of a or- Some of them have an inherent propensity to accumu-
namented object fashioned from an elk (Alces alces) late events and history, whereas others are associated
antler at Rusinowo in Pomerania, northern Poland, with the history of ceremonies, knowledge – they come
inspired us to undertake extensive studies expected to to life in a specific social setting. Because of this, our
enable a comprehensive description of this artefact, archaeological biographies may be regarded as far from
starting from the time of its making, through the pe- complete; they will be concerned for the most part with
riod when it was in use until its abandoning. Thus, in the birth (manufacture), use and discarding of an object
our studies, we employed an approach which helped us (White 1992; d’Errico 1993a), examined within a broader
trace the biography of an object, its individual history context of the natural and cultural environment. Evi-
from its birth, through to the time it was abandoned, dently, we shall take into closer account here different
during deposition, until its discovery. Borrowed from aspects of the said phases of existence of an object, from
anthropological research this productive perspective the sourcing of its raw material, the degree and direction
has found many followers in archaeology because it of its modification, the making of the ornamentation –
lets us look at an artefact as a part of social life. Indi- the time, method and its significance, the manner and
vidual phases of existence of an object and the various duration of using of the object, its repairs and alterations
circumstances of its use appear to us in the light of the up to the circumstances of its discarding (Płonka 2012,
functioning of the artefact within a community. It stands 36-38). The environmental context is understood by us
to reason that these archaeological biographies are built as the presentation of environmental conditions, mainly
in a somewhat different dimension than they are exami- biological and climatic, which privailed in the area of
ned by cultural or social anthropology (Langness 1965; discovery of the artefact. The cultural context, on the
8 T. Płonka, K. Kowalski
other hand, refers to the description of the societies of the mollusc and ostracod fauna – the source of impor-
hunter-gatherers who were living in these lands at the tant information about the ancient environment. In
time when the object was made and the features of their the next sub-chapter, Małgorzata Malkiewicz discusses
symbolic culture based on finds of various ornamented the results of palynological studies using the evidence
objects. from the borehole and from the hollows in the spongy
Not less significant is the post-depositional aspect of matter of the artefact itself. In order to compare the
the object’s biography. The great chronological distance results of samples originating from these two sources
dividing the time when the artefact was in use and the Author analyses the entire profile obtained from the
when it went out of circulation within its own socio- borehole, starting from the late Pleistocene through to
cultural system, from the time of its identification as the late Holocene. In the third sub-chapter, Krzysztof
an artefact in the present age has caused it to be subject Stefaniak, Urszula Ratajczak and Magdalena Ciombor
to different events and processes of a taphonomic and present an analysis of the antler of which the ornamen-
stratigraphic nature occurring within the object itself ted object was made and characterize different finds of
as well as in its surroundings (Arnoldus-Huyzendveld elk remains from Poland.
1998). The key aim of this line of our research was reco- The third chapter, also in three parts, presents diffe-
gnizing natural transformation which the object unde- rent aspects of the functioning of the object within the
rwent within the deposit and telling them apart from cultural environment. In the first sub-chapter, Marcin
intentional treatment dictated by culture. On the other Diakowski and Bernadeta Kufel-Diakowska characte-
hand, the analysis of this stage of the biography cast rize methods used in its production, and use-wear, as
additional light on the circumstances of its discovery well as the likely reason for discarding the object. They
and its passing to the museum collections. illustrate their macro- and micro-observations along
The construction of our study seeks to include dif- with the results of experimental studies. In the second
ferent biographical characteristics of the object within part, Marcin Diakowski and Tomasz Płonka discuss all
a broader context. All the radiocarbon dates cited in the the aspects associated with the making of the engraved
text are either in uncalibrated years BP (95.4% probabi- patterns on the artefact. They analyse the techniques
lity) or calibrated years BC. The calibration was made of engraving, the time of origin of individual groups of
using the program OxCal, version 4.2 (Bronk Ramsey designs, number of individuals involved in making the
2009; Bronk Ramsey, Lee 2013) with a 14C age calibra- ornament and its symbolic significance. The third sub-
tion curve IntCal 13 (Reimer et al. 2013). The names of chapter falls into two parts in which authors analyse
late glacial stadials and interstadials used in the text are the manner of using the object from the perspective of
for the most part traditional (Oldest, Older, Younger archaeometry studies. In the first part, Joanna Trąbska,
Dryas, Allerød, Bølling), with some supplementary use Aleksandra Wesełucha-Birczyńska, Barbara Trybalska
made of Greenland ice core timescales as GI-1a-e, GS-1 and Adam Gaweł set out to describe various factors
(Björck et al. 1998; Walker et al. 1999). acting on the surface of the object. The Authors investi-
In the first chapter Krzysztof Kowalski and Tomasz gate working hypotheses on the changes in the colour
Płonka analyse the circumstances of the discovery of of that same surface, as well as discussing various fac-
the artefact and ponders also over its deposition con- tors which may have been at play. In the second part,
text. The events associated with obtaining the object Joanna Trąbska and Barbara Trybalska make a detailed
are of interest not only from the point of view of the analysis of substances identified within the lines of the
preservation and circumstances of survival of the ar- engraved ornamentation.
tefact but also from the perspective of conservation of In the fourth chapter, Tomasz Płonka and Krzysztof
archaeological objects. Kowalski present the object from Rusinowo against
The second chapter of our work, in three parts, de- a broader background of ornamented artefacts from
scribes different aspects of the geographical environ- the close of the Palaeolithic and the beginning of the
ment in which the hunter-gatherers lived – the ma- Mesolithic in central, western and northern parts of
kers and users of the artefact discovered at Rusinowo. Europe. They discuss different functions of ornamented
In the first sub-chapter, Andrzej Piotrowski, Jarmila objects within hunter-gatherer communities, characte-
Krzymińska, Paweł Sydor, Urszula Pączek and Bernard rizing the change in symbolic culture which occurred
Cedro present the palaeogeography of the area around during these two periods.
the site in which the artefact was discovered, based on In the closing remarks, Tomasz Płonka and Krzysz-
the results of past work carried out in the region and on tof Kowalski give a brief synthesis of the biography
recently made studies of boreholes. Next to the features of the ornamented object from Rusinowo, taking into
of the sediments themselves analysis was made also of account the results of research made by all the teams
Introduction 9
taking part in the project. It includes all the elements grant awarded by Instituto Polaco de Cultura in Madrid
which characterize the artefact from various perspec- (2010). For many valuable insights, we are indebted to
tives: the environment in which its makers lived, the numerous discussions with our colleagues Ben Elliott,
raw material they used, the methods employed in ma- Romuald Kosiba, Aleksander Limisiewicz, Erik Brinch
nufacturing the object and the engraved designs and Petersen, Peter Vang Petersen and Zofia Sulgostowska.
their meaning, the ways in which the object was used We warmly thank Tomasz Gąsior for making a series
and the reasons for its discarding. Last but not least of inspiring photographs documenting the object and
they review briefly the significance of our artefact in its ornamentation. For granting access to the results of
the light of changes in symbolic culture on the turn of their own research we express thanks to Jerzy Stępień
the Palaeolithic and the Mesolithic. and Adam Szynkiewicz. We are very grateful to fellow
We would like to express our thanks to persons researchers Bartosz Kotrys and Tomasz Żuk from the
and institutions who contributed to our research, pu- Pomeranian Branch of the Polish Geological Institute
blication and dissemination of information about the - National Research Institute in Szczecin, who assisted
ornamented object from Rusinowo, thereby assisting to us in the fieldwork made in very difficult conditions.
a various extent in the creation of this book. The studies Our special thanks go to Edyta Owadowska and Jan
of the object were completed for the most part within Danyłow from the Kampinos National Park for their
the project no. N N 109 287537 (2009-2011), w hereas helpful comments on elk antler size. Our thanks also
in zoological studies use was made of resources from go to Giampaolo Dalmeri from MUSE-Museum of
grants no. 1069/S/KBEE/2013 and N N109 318237 finan- Sciences, Trento, for giving access to photographs of
ced by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education. the anthropomorphic representation found at Riparo
The presentation of the results of the study of the ar- Dalmeri.
tefact outside Poland was assisted by the conference
Editors