Reconstructing the Biography of Children's Stone Bracers in the Iberian Peninsula

Abstract

Perforated stone plaques, known as bracers, are found across late prehistoric Europe and many of them have been recovered in Bell Beaker funerary contexts, usually associated with adult individuals. Experimental, technological, and use-wear studies have determined that the bracers were both utilitarian and symbolic objects. Very few are found in children's graves, but examples are known in the Iberian Peninsula, two of which are presented here. The analyses conducted on the two bracers, including archaeological contextualization, raw material identification, and technological and use-wear studies, allow the authors to reconstruct their respective biographies. Although these pieces were associated with young children, they had long lives before their final deposition in the graves. Use-wear marks on one of the bracers suggest that it was used in archery, despite its small size.

Life and Death of the Macrolithic Tools from the Third-millennium cal. bc Necropolis of La Orden-Seminario in Southwest Spain

“…This object was also not manufactured for death, as it shows traces of having been used in archery activities, probably carried out by an adult individual. The surface shows striations with depression at an oblique angle to the piece, probably caused by the bowstring hitting the support, as has been documented on other Iberian bracers (Barroso Bermejo et al 2022). The presence of some parallel striations probably represented traces of the final polishing of the wrist-guard surface by stone abrader (Kaňáková & Peška 2023).…”

“…In the subterranean cave of tholos 7055, the wrist-guard is associated with a 'child warrior', forming part of prestigious grave goods in keeping with an individual of high social rank, acquired from birth (Linares-Catela 2020), as has been found in other Iberian sites (Barroso Bermejo et al 2022;Herrero Corral et al 2019). The hammer was intentionally discarded in the covering mound after fracturing.…”