Animals as a remarkable source of raw material: Osseous artifacts manufacture in 2nd millennium BC Southern Iberia

Abstract

Animals have played a basic role within human groups since the origins of humankind, being used as a source of very different elements, such as meat, milk, wool or bone. The aim of this paper is to approach the importance of animals as a source of hard raw material in human technology during the 2nd millennium BC. Our main goal is to spotlight the careful selection of the bones to manufacture specific items, focusing on the ancient beliefs and myths that human groups might have had towards some animal species and how they could have influenced that choice. Thus, an assemblage of 830 items from four archaeological sites located in the southern half of the Iberian Peninsula: Motilla del Azuer (Ciudad Real), Motilla de las Cañas (Ciudad Real), Peñalosa (Jaén) and Cerro de la Encina (Granada). The discussion involves aspects such as the use of especial raw materials, labor investment, use-wear patterns, as well as curation and maintenance. Thus, it can be pointed out the presence of certain manufacturing traditions for some type of objects whose morphology has remained almost unaltered since the Chalcolithic.