Industria materiilor dure animale din tell-ul gumelnițean de la Pietrele. Reevaluarea vechilor colecții arheologice / Antler and bone artefacts from the Gumelniţa tell settlement at Pietrele. A re-evaluation of the old archaeological collections

Abstract

The tell‐ settlement of Pietrele is a landmark for the understanding of the Gumelnița communities north of the Danube. Archaeological research began in 1943 under the direction of D. Berciu who subsequently published a synthesis report of the main finds but it was just a quantitative enumeration of items without a description of the technological and use‐ wear marks on the hard animal material artefacts. Consequently, we tried to identify the number of such archaeological items from the old excavations which are still present in the collection of the “ Vasile Pârvan” Institute of Archaeology and then to present a different type of analysis drawing conclusions related to the economic and spiritual characteristics of the Gumelnița community at Pietrele. Firstly, we aimed to identify the raw materials from which the pieces were made. Secondly, typological categories were established. For each of these categories, the operational scheme was reconstituted and then the possible use‐ wear marks were identified, pointing towards the way the artefacts were used.