Personal ornaments and shell artifacts

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The personal ornaments identified at Klimonas are very diverse. Raw materials, including shells, bone, teeth and stones, were locally acquired on the island. A study of the manufacturing process indicates that shell and stone ornaments were the result of domestic productions performed in the village. The functional data indicate that raw materials (blanks, preforms, finished and used objects) were deposited in various structures throughout the three sectors. Certain shell and stone ornaments had a particular function related to their deposition in specific architectural units. Picrolite production, largely represented in the stone materials used in bead manufacturing, did not evidence any difference between the three sectors, in contrast to shells. The malacological spectrum identified in each sector was dominated by different species, suggesting that decorated items used in the village, including in the Communal building and building B800, varied. These differences may be related to the activities performed in each sector, involving the use of various decorated objects, or to the shifting frequentation of the sectors. The disparities observed between the three sectors also result from the type of ornaments deposited in the village structures. The functional data indicate that many of the hidden objects show evidence of use prior to their deposit, suggesting that a part of the daily symbolic life was permanently sealed in the buildings. Comparisons with the personal ornaments used by the Epipaleolithic communities and the successive villagers who settled on the island during the Cypro-PPNA and Cypro-PPNB show the persistence of many raw materials for bead production but changes in bead styles. Some of these variations find marked and synchronous correspondence with changes in the personal ornaments of the continental pre-pottery societies. Shared dynamics with the mainland indicate that the ornamentation of the Cypriot pre-ceramic societies was subject to different forms of cultural influences linked to an extended sphere of continental interactions. Several mechanisms may have contributed to these distinct interactions. The successive arrival of several waves of continental travelers, specialized craftspeople, or indirect contacts via intermediate coastal populations may have influenced the renewal of personal ornaments over time.