Old design – New material: An early Final Palaeolithic bone projectile point from Bärenkeller cave site (Thuringia, Germany), and its implications for the evolution of osseous armatures and the environmental development in Lateglacial Central Europe

Abstract

The transition from the late Pleniglacial to the Lateglacial in Central Europe brought about fundamental transformations of hunter-gatherer ways of life. Linked to profound climatic and environmental changes, the Late Upper Palaeolithic represented by the Magdalenian comes to an end, and the Final Palaeolithic represented by the Federmesser-Gruppen starts. This cultural shift between 13 and 12 ka cal. BC is particularly evident in lithic hunting armature, with frontally-hafted points gaining in importance to the detriment of laterally hafted backed bladelets. The changes in osseous projectile weaponry are still poorly understood. A double-bevelled projectile point made of red deer or elk bone from Bärenkeller cave site in Central Germany was radiocarbon-dated to the second half of GI-1e and is thus contemporary with the early Final Palaeolithic attested in the region. Together with already known, condiderably younger specimens from Northern Germany and Central Poland, this finding shows that the concept of double-bevelled osseous points survived the end of the Magdalenian and coexisted with lithic points and osseous barbed points during the Lateglacial. The rapid faunal exchange in the Central European low mountain range, however, required a much earlier shift from reindeer antler as the primary resource to other large cervids than in the lowlands to the north.