An examination of bone artefacts from the later epipalaeolithic (Natufian) Levant

• Main Author: Boyd, B.
• Published: University of Cambridge 1996
• Subjects: 930.1
• Online Access: http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.596833

This dissertation is a primarily an analysis of prehistoric bone artefact technology, concentrating on an assemblage excavated from the Natufian site of Hayonim Terrace, western Galilee. Following a general introduction of the main themes, methods and problems, the second chapter offers a critique of what are routinely seen as the "traditional" areas of enquiry (climate and environment, settlement pattern, subsistence, population, tool industries), in an effort to understand the historical and material conditions which framed, structured, the social practices I wish to investigate in later chapters. Integrated into this critique is a discussion of the use of analytical descriptive categories as currently employed in archaeological studies of material culture; issues which are drawn out in full in Chapter 4. The main features of, what I term, a "biographical" approach to the study of artefacts are introduced. The third chapter presents a history of bone artefact studies in the context of a critical discussion of historically-situated research traditions. Recent work in the history and philosophy of science has been much concerned with the social production, construction, of knowledge through the routine working procedures of any given discipline. I draw upon some of these ideas in an effort to understand the historical paths which bone artefact studies have taken over the last century, and how these past practices have shaped and defined the perceived limits of our present-day enquiry. Bearing these perspectives in mind, Chapter 4 narrows the focus to the development of bone artefact studies in the Levant itself, starting with the early work of Garrod and Turville-Petre, to more recent experimental approaches by Newcomer. In particular, I address the issue of the perceived importance of the "flourishing" of bone working in the later epipalaeolithic Natufian, prior to which little use seems to have been made of bone as a "technological material".