Towards understanding the influence of Neolithisation for communities using the Zvejnieki cemetery, Latvia: A technological and functional analysis of the osseous artefacts discovered in the Late Mesolithic burial no 57 and Neolithic burial no 164

Abstract

The results of traceological (technological and use-wear) studies of osseous artefacts discovered in the Mesolithic burial no 57 and Neolithic burial no 164 from the cemetery in Zvejnieki, Latvia are discussed. This research identified significant differentiation in the techniques used to make animal tooth pendants deposited in the Mesolithic grave and, by contrast, identified relative uniformity in the methods used to make those from the Neolithic grave. In addition, use-wear traces were observed on many of the Mesolithic pendants and were absent from almost all Neolithic ones, indicating the Neolithic examples were probably made for funerary purposes. This research also identified that the bone points from both graves were made in a similar manner and had been used. The technological and functional similarities and differences between the artefacts from the Mesolithic and Neolithic burials are discussed in the context of their probable origin and on observations made on other collections of similar chronology in the region.