Parures et objets d’art du Gravettien récent de Poiana Cireșului-Piatra Neamț (Roumanie)

Abstract

The Paleolithic settlement of Poiana Cireșului is located in north-eastern Romania (the city of Piatra Neamț), on the right side of the Bistrița valley, near the confluence with the Doamna river. Recent investigations have revealed four archaeological layers: one Epigravettian layer and three Gravettian ones. The first Gravettian layer, which is contemporary with the Last Glacial Maximum, has provided the richest habitation of the site, being dated between 19,459±96 and 20,154±97. A number of adornments and art objects that come from Gravettian I have turned Poiana Cireșului into an important settlement which helps understand the symbolic behavior of Paleolithic communities in Romania. Among the suspended objects of adornment, we should particularly mention an engraved siltite pendant, a calcareous marl bead, perforated wolf, fox and deer canines, Cyclope and Dentalium gastropods, perforated in order to be suspended. The engraved bones are represented by a diaphysis with 17 notches with V-shaped section, a rib and a small bone that are laterally engraved, a bone with engraved upper face, small fragments of bone with various engravings, a bone which has a claviforme engraved on the upper face and a reindeer metapodial with three groups of incisions. A reindeer phalange transformed into a whistle, a quartzite pebble with incisions and ochre, aragonite moulds of four lamellibranchiate fossils complete the findings of this site. In 2015, a silicified wood anthropomorphic statuette was uncovered and remains the only finding of this type from the Romanian Paleolithic. Besides the description of objects, the study includes technical and functional analyses of them, as well as extensive discussions on the possible analogies.