Let’s groove: attachment techniques of Eurasian elk (Alces alces) tooth pendants at the Late Mesolithic cemetery Yuzhniy Oleniy Ostrov (Lake Onega, Russia)

Abstract

More than 4300 Eurasian elk (Alces alces) incisors, most of them pendants, were found in 84 burials in the Late Mesolithic cemetery of Yuzhniy Oleniy Ostrov, Northwest Russia. We analysed the manufacture techniques of elk teeth (4014), in the collection of the Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography, St Petersburg. A striking observation is that the manufacture of these pendants is similar in all burials. Teeth were worked by carving one or several grooves around the root tip. In addition to grooved ones, a number of teeth were not worked at all. The uniformity of the chosen species, tooth and techniques indicates that strict norms prevailed in the pendant industry. Despite the overall similarity, our study shows some variation in making pendants. A groove can cut the whole circumference of the root, or several distinct grooves can mark opposite sides of the root. Sometimes the grooves are deep and made carefully, and sometimes they are weak and made hastily. A typology of various groove types was created. In many graves, one groove type dominates. We interpret that this inter-burial variation and domination of one type resulted from personal choice and taste based on practicality. Such variation could also be associated with kin identifiers, but we did not find clear support for that in our study. Our study indicates that the groove types as such had no connection with particular ornaments, garments or hanging positions.

New insights into the Upper Palaeolithic of the Caucasus through the study of personal ornaments. Teeth and bones pendants from Satsurblia and Dzudzuana caves (Imereti, Georgia)

“…Their presence in many prehistoric settlements, in different contexts, including single burials with dozens of those pendants in the UP [128], and in the Mesolithic [116,129] as well as in extant ethnographic examples [130]-suggests that they possessed besides their aesthetic merit also a symbolic value for both Palaeolithic and post-Palaeolithic societies. Countless examples have been ethnographically observed of a particular animal special status within the symbolic world of extant hunter-gatherer societies [55][56][57][58][131][132][133], suggested also for contexts from the Middle Palaeolithic [134] through the Mesolithic [135]. Yet, in most cases, these animals had seemingly an important nutritional value [136,137] contra that of the red deer.…”

Materialising the Social Relationships of Hunter-Gatherers: Archaeological and Geochemical Analyses of 4th Millennium BC ‘Slate Ring Ornaments’ from Finland

“…At the case of the Nikkarinmäki and Hietaniemenkangas fragments, the fragmentation of the original artefact could have, for example, taken place when the artefact represented NM 28885: 2 while NM 15194:51 was reshaped further after the parting. In this sense, the differences between NM 15194: 51 and NM 28885: 2 could also represent the skills or personal preferences of two individualssomething that has also been noted in the case of Mesolithic animal tooth pendants (Mannermaa et al, 2021). Although a clear geochemical connection was discovered between NM 28885:2 and NM 15194:51, the geochemical analysis proved that neither artefacts NM 9494:27 and NM 24472:1588 nor NM 11596:5 and 21599:552 derived from the same raw material source.…”

“…As Kopisto (1959, p. 15) has noted, the shape of the ringed ornament fragments are reminiscent of an animal tooth pendant, artefacts that were commonly used as personal ornaments through prehistory in north-eastern Europe (e.g. Jonuks & Rannamäe, 2018;Macāne et al, 2019;Mannermaa et al, 2021). In other words, even if we refer to these items as 'ringed ornaments', the form of a full circle might not have always been the preferred shape of the ornament, while the drilled holes might not always represent attempts to repair the ornaments into their original form.…”

Prehistoric Pendants as Instigators of Sound and Body Movements: A Traceological Case Study from Northeast Europe, c. 8200 cal. bp

“…Perhaps a common material culture, covering raw materials, techniques, personal ornaments, and even their sounds, was a way to moderate individuals' varying origins and sustain group cohesion and a feeling of togetherness and unity (cf. Mannermaa et al 2021).…”