The Life and Times of an Estonian Mesolithic Slotted Bone ‘Dagger’. Extended Object Biographies for Legacy Objects

Abstract

All too often archaeological objects are found as stray finds. As such, they have little or no contextual information, which often makes them difficult to handle analytically and in terms of their exhibition appeal. As a consequence, they often languish un-researched in museum storerooms and there is the critical risk that such objects fall victim to the ongoing curation crisis and are deaccessioned due to a perceived lack of value. Therefore, in this paper we aim to illustrate the applicability of an extended biographical approach to such legacy material by studying the changing character of the Ulbi dagger, an Early Mesolithic flint-edged bone dagger, in its both archaeological and modern contexts. By using both a combination of traditional archaeological methods, coupled with a critical analysis of past illustrations, the dagger went from an isolated, undated, and unique object to a tool with a complex life history extending more than 9000 years. Our analysis reveals multiple stages of manufacturing and ornamentation including the presence of possible anthropomorphic figures. Use-wear analysis also allows us to address the object's likely primary function. Finally, we speculate about its deposition and discuss previously overlooked post-recovery episodes of damage and repair.

Classification of archaeological adhesives from Eastern Europe and Urals by ATR‐FT‐IR spectroscopy and chemometric analysis

“…ATR‐FT‐IR spectra of samples from artefacts from Ulbi (9), Veretye I (50) and Volodary (62) were selected as representatives of archaeological adhesives containing birch bark tar without major additives, birch bark tar with additives, and minor/non‐birch bark tar containing samples, respectively (Figure 2b). All the sample spectra were compared with archaeological birch bark tar Pulli (7) (Vahur et al, 2011), Ulbi (9) (Bjørnevad et al, 2019), and contemporary birch bark tar (aged 10 years at room temperature) spectra, and also with each other to identify the pattern of compositional differences of the adhesive samples. The IR spectrum of sample from Ulbi (9) matches with contemporary birch bark tar reference spectrum (see Figure 2a) quite well at most of the diagnostic absorbance bands.…”

“…FT‐IR is a fast and simple technique, which in combination with attenuated total reflection (ATR) allows to analyze very small samples and causes minimal to no destruction to the objects. It has been successfully employed for identifying tars and resins in very different sample types (Derrick et al, 1999; Bjørnevad et al, 2019; Font et al, 2007; Vahur et al, 2011). Although FT‐IR does not allow substance identification on a molecular level, it is fully capable of identifying major molecular classes and distinguish materials with different structures (Daher et al, 2014; Ramer & Lendl, 2013).…”

Using Radiocarbon Dates and Tool Design Principles to Assess the Role of Composite Slotted Bone Tool Technology at the Intersection of Adaptation and Culture-History

“…4 Calibrated radiocarbon date plots (normalized areas) of slotted point contexts and stray find slotted points in the study area ordered according to the longitudinal coordinate of the find location. Data from Apel et al (2017), Bergsvik & David (2015), Bjørnevad et al (2019), Brinch Petersen (2015, Edgren (1997), Eriksson et al (2003), Gummesson & Molin (2019), Gurina (1956, Hartz et al (2010), Ivanovaitė et al (2018), Jungklaus et al (2016), Jussila et al (2012, Kjällquist (2001), Kjällquist et al (2016), Larsson (2005), Miettinen et al (2008), Oshibkina (1989), Persson (2014), Philippsen et al (2019), Sjöström & Hammarstrand Dehman (2010), Skakun et al (2011), Sten et al (2000, Vang Petersen (2001), Zaretskaya et al (2005), and this study. See SI 2 for radiocarbon dates and coordinates use is now detected in the Eastern Baltic region and Belarus almost throughout the Early Holocene, ca.…”

“…2) Analyses conducted on the black substance used to glue insets to slotted points, as well as for other purposes in northern Europe during the Mesolithic, suggest the use of birch bark pitch (Bjørnevad et al, 2019;Edgren, 1997;Vahur et al, 2011), while the osseous material used to produce slotted bone tools in the area seems to derive from large terrestrial ungulates (David, 2009), for which a reservoir effect may in some cases be possible (Philippsen, 2019), birch bark pitch, with tar produced from the outer layer of short-lived Betula ssp. as its main component, can be expected to have a very limited age of its own.…”

“…Until recently, a very limited number of sites with more or less securely dated inset bone tool contexts has been reported from the vast area stretching from the Scandinavian Peninsula to the Moscow region in the east (Knutsson et al, 2016). However, with the addition of 13 slotted tools from Strandvägen and Kanaljorden sites in Motala, Sweden (Gummesson & Molin, 2019), as well as direct dates on the slotted points from Vaikantonys and Obšrūtai in Lithuania (Ivanovaitė et al, 2018), the slotted knife from Ulbi, Estonia (Bjørnevad et al, 2019) and a slotted point from an unknown location in the southeastern Baltic (Philippsen et al, 2019), the chronological position of inset bone tool technology in the area is becoming more robustly constrained, yet even this Fig. 1 a The Northern Hemisphere and the area discussed in the paper.…”