Abstract
The systematic use of antlers and other osseous materials by modern humans marks a set of cultural and technological innovations in the early Upper Paleolithic, as is seen most clearly in the Aurignacian. Split-based points, which are one of the most common osseous tools, are present throughout most regions where the Aurignacian is documented. Using results from recent and ongoing excavations at Geißenklösterle, Hohle Fels and Vogelherd, we nearly tripled the sample of split-based points from 31 to 87 specimens, and thereby enhance our understanding of the technological economy surrounding the production of osseous tools. Aurignacian people of the Swabian Jura typically left spit-based points at sites that appear to be base camps rich with numerous examples of personal ornaments, figurative art, symbolic imagery, and musical instruments. The artifact assemblages from SW Germany highlight a production sequence that resembles that of SW France and Cantabria, except for the absence of tongued pieces. Our study documents the life histories of osseous tools and demonstrates templates for manufacture, use, recycling, and discard of these archetypal artifacts from the Aurignacian. The study also underlines the diversified repertoire of modern humans in cultural and technological realms highlighting their adaptive capabilities.
Highlights
The use of osseous material increased and diversified with the emergence of modern humans in the Old World [1,2,3,4]
In the European Aurignacian, we observe a rich array of osseous artifacts with functional as well as symbolic values, the latter being represented by musical instruments, personal ornaments, and figurative art including therianthropic imagery [9,10,11,12,13,14,15]
The Swabian Jura is one of the key regions with rich evidence of bone, antler and ivory working dated to the early Upper Paleolithic [9, 10, 12, 16,17,18]
Summary
The use of osseous material increased and diversified with the emergence of modern humans in the Old World [1,2,3,4]. His work contributed to the first discussion of the production method [32, 33] Since his publications, others have followed suit with different chrono-typological schemes, which varied according to the analyzed assemblages and their theoretical approach [34, 35]. Others have followed suit with different chrono-typological schemes, which varied according to the analyzed assemblages and their theoretical approach [34, 35] This earlier period of the research history was dominated by French scholars as the rich Aurignacian material was concentrated in the Aquitaine Basin of France and the neighboring region of Cantabria in Spain. According to many models which drew from these studies, the SBPs represent the earliest subphase of the Aurignacian (Aurignacien ancien or Aurignacian I), which explains the regional chronological trends in the development of technological repertoires
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