Early Upper Paleolithic Tubular Beads from the Main Chamber of Denisova Cave

Abstract

The authors present the results of a technological and functional analysis of bone tubular beads from the Upper Paleolithic layer 11 in the Main Chamber of Denisova Cave, northwestern Altai. Tubular beads are among the most widespread categories of Early Upper Paleolithic ornaments from the cave. The technological sequence of operations has been reconstructed. It included several stages: selection of blank, planing, manufacture of preform by truncating the epiphyses, ornamenting the preform, marking preforms for fracturing into short tubes, sawing or cutting, fragmentation by cuts, removal of cancellous bone, and smoothing the fracture surfaces. Prepared blanks and diagnostic production waste were not noted in the technological context of the complex; this indicates that the tubular beads were probably manufactured outside the excavated area of the Main Chamber. The analyses revealed traces of wear caused by contact with clothing or human skin and by threading on a string or thin strap. Tubular beads were used by the Upper Paleolithic inhabitants of the cave as elements of clothing, necklaces, and probably bracelets. The closest but still considerably distant parallels to the tubular beads from the Altai are Aurignacian ornaments of a similar age from Western, Central, and Eastern Europe.