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Abstract
This article focuses on the production of bone tools during the seventh millennium cal bc. A large number of fishhooks and waste from fishhook production have been found at the sites of Sævarhelleren and Viste cave, in western Norway. The data have been studied by means of the chaîne opératoire concept, meaning that the artefacts are described and analysed in order to identify the different steps in the production process and to characterize the technology in a comparative northern European perspective. The result shows that bone tools and fishhooks were crafted in a similar way at these two sites, with techniques that were mastered by all makers, and in close relation to stone tool production. When compared to other contemporaneous sites, the technology resembles the Mesolithic bone technology of north-eastern Europe. It thus contradicts the hypothesis of a strong connection between western Norway and the Maglemose cultural group in southern Scandinavia and northern Germany.
Cet article traite de la production d'outils en os au cours du septième millénaire av. J.-C. (en datation calibrée). À l'ouest de la Norvège, sur le site de Sævarhelleren et dans la grotte de Viste, un grand nombre d'hameçons et leurs déchets de fabrication ont été retrouvés. Les données ont été étudiées à l'aide du concept de chaîne opératoire, ce qui signifie que les objets sont décrits et analysés afin d'identifier les différentes étapes dans les processus de production et de caractériser la technologie dans une perspective comparative nord-européenne. Le résultat montre que des outils en os et des hameçons ont été fabriqués, par tous, de la même manière sur ces deux sites, et en relation étroite avec la production d'outils en pierre. Rapportée aux productions d'autres sites contemporains, la technologie s'apparente à celle, mésolithique, utilisée au Nord-Est de l'Europe. Ceci contredit ainsi l'hypothèse d'un lien fort entre les groupes culturels de l'ouest de la Norvège et ceux du Maglemose au sud de la Scandinavie et nord de l'Allemagne.
Dieser Beitrag beschäftigt sich mit der Produktion von Knochenwerkzeugen während des 7. vorchristlichen Jahrtausends. Eine große Anzahl von Angelhaken und Abfallstücke von deren Produktion wurden in den Halbhöhlen von Sævarhelleren und Viste in Westnorwegen gefunden. Das Fundmaterial wurde in Bezug auf das Konzept der chaîne opératoire untersucht. Die Objekte wurden beschrieben und analysiert, um die verschiedenen Schritte des Produktionsprozesses zu identifizieren und die Technologie in einer vergleichenden nordeuropäischen Perspektive zu charakterisieren. Das Ergebnis zeigt, dass Knochengeräte und Angelhaken an diesen beiden Plätzen auf ähnliche Weise und mit Techniken, die alle Hersteller beherrschten und sich in enger Beziehung zur Steingeräteproduktion befanden, gefertigt wurden. Im Vergleich zu anderen gleichzeitigen Fundplätzen spiegeln die Objekte die mesolithische Knochengerätetechnologie des nordosteuropäischen Raumes wider und widersprechen daher der Hypothese einer engen Verbindung zwischen Westnorwegen und der Maglemose-Kultur in Südskandinavien und Norddeutschland. Translation by Heiner Schwarzberg.
Acknowledgements
The excavations at Sævarhelleren were financed by the Faculty of Humanities and the Meltzer foundation of the University of Bergen, and the analysis of the material was supported by a 2012 NFR/FMSH grant and grants in 2013 from AHKR University of Bergen, for which we are very grateful. An early version of this paper was presented at the session ‘Settled and Itinerant Crafts People in History and Prehistory’ at the 2012 EAA meeting in Helsinki. We thank Berit Valentin Eriksen and Gitte Hansen for inviting us there. We also thank Sveinung Bang-Andersen, Anne Karin Hufthammer, and Svein Indrelid for providing access to unpublished radiocarbon dates from the Viste cave, and Ken Ritchie for his help with identification of carnivores and for improving our knowledge on fish. We are grateful to Hein Bjartmann Bjerck, Clive Bonsall, and Håkon Glørstad for comments on an earlier version of the manuscript. Finally, we would like to thank Robin Skeates and Jennifer Sharman for helpful comments and suggestions.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Knut Andreas Bergsvik
Knut Andreas Bergsvik is Professor of Archaeology in the Department of Archaeology, History, Cultural Studies and Religion at the University of Bergen, Norway. His research interests and publications include the social and territorial organization of Stone Age hunter–gatherer groups, the transition to agriculture in Scandinavia, and the human use of caves and rockshelters. He has conducted several excavation projects in western Norway. He has been managing editor of Norwegian Archaeological Review for the period 2010 to 2014.
Address: Department of AHKR, University of Bergen, P.O. Box 7805, 5020 Bergen, Norway [email: [email protected]]
Éva David
Éva David is Researcher at CNRS Laboratory Préhistoire et Technologie, France, and gives lectures on Mesolithic bone technology at the University of Nanterre, France. She has many years of experience of the study of bone artefacts, and has studied and compared earlier Stone Age assemblages from several countries in Northern Europe by applying the technological approach. She is currently participating in several international research projects as a specialist on bone technology, and has published extensively on the subject.
Address: Maison René-Ginouvès, Archéologie et Ethnologie, UMR 7055 Préhistoire et Technologie, 21 Allée de l'Université, F—92023 Nanterre—cedex, France [email: [email protected]]