A case of Human Bone Chalcolithic Technology from the Perdigões site (Alentejo, Portugal)

Abstract

A human femur diaphysis in the form of a burin was excavated from a secondary burial context containing osteological remains and industry in the Archaeological Complex of Perdigões (Portugal). The majority of these evidences are thermo-altered and highly fragmented. Radiocarbon dates for this context place it in the middle 3 rd millennium BC.Typological analyses indicate that the human femur fragment is a burin and use-wear comparisons suggest that it was used to drill hide.

Two examples of anthropic manipulation and postmortem processing of human remains at megalithic sites in inland Iberia: La Cabaña and Los Zumacales (Spanish northern sub‐plateau)

“…In the British Isles, the wide variety of mortuary deposits has motivated a more profound investigation on the actions carried out at megalithic sites. The practices that have been detected include the exposure and relocation of remains; the natural disarticulation by post‐depositional phenomena and the disappearance of elements after periodical clean‐ups of the burial space; the intentional disarticulation and defleshing of bodies to speed up the decomposition process; and even the circulation of some skeletal elements as relics (Beckett, 2011; Crozier, 2016; Cunha et al, 2016; Shanks & Tilley, 1982; Silva & Ferreira, 2008; Smith & Brickley, 2009; Wysocki et al, 2013). These formulae have been confirmed by finds of very precise evidence of perimortem processing.…”

An Upper Palaeolithic engraved human bone associated with ritualistic cannibalism

“…A few European Upper Palaeolithic sites have yielded human teeth interpreted as personal ornaments [ 53 , 54 ] and human calvaria fashioned to make skull-cups [ 18 , 21 , 55 – 57 ]. A unique example of a Chalcolithic (3 rd millennium BC) human femur has recently been described as a burin, possibly to drill animal hide [ 58 ]. None of these human objects appears to have been decorated (but see [ 18 ]).…”