Evidence of ritual breakage of a ground stone tool at the Late Natufian site of Hilazon Tachtit cave (12,000 years ago)
Autoři:
Laure Dubreuil aff001; Ahiad Ovadia aff002; Ruth Shahack-Gross aff004; Leore Grosman aff003
Působiště autorů:
Department of Anthropology, Trent University, Peterborough, Canada
aff001; The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, Israel
aff002; Institute of Archaeology, The Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel
aff003; Department of Maritime Civilizations, Recanati Institute for Maritime Studies, Leon H. Charney School for Marine Sciences, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel
aff004; The Jack, Joseph and Morton Scholion-Mandel School for Advanced Studies in the Humanities, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel
aff005
Vyšlo v časopise:
PLoS ONE 14(10)
Kategorie:
Research Article
doi:
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0223370
Souhrn
Destruction of valuables is a common behavior in human history. Ethnographic data show the polysemic, but fundamentally symbolic, nature of this act. Yet, research aimed at exploring symbolic destruction in prehistoric societies has underlined the difficulties in establishing unambiguous evidence for such behaviour. We present here the analysis of a basalt tool fragment which provides evidence for intentional breakage associated with ritual activity 12,000 years ago. The tool fragment was part of a unique assemblage of grave goods deposited in a burial pit of a woman suggested to have been a shaman (Hilazon Tachtit cave, Southern Levant). The reconstruction of the artefact’s life history through morphological, 3D, use wear, residue and contextual analyses suggest that: 1) the fragment was initially part of a shallow bowl used for mixing ash or lime with water; 2) the bowl was subsequently intentionally broken through flaking along multiple axes; 3) The bowl was not used after its breakage but placed in a cache before the interment of the deceased, accompanied with other special items. The broken bowl fragment underlines the ritualistic nature of the act of breakage in the Natufian society. The research presented in this paper provides an important window into Natufian ritual behaviour during the critical period of transformation to agricultural communities. In addition, our results offer new insight into practices related to intentional destruction of valuables associated with death-related ceremonies at the end of the Palaeolithic.
Klíčová slova:
Archaeology – Behavior – Calcite – Neolithic period – Paleoanthropology – Sediment – Specimen grinding – Basalt
Zdroje
1. Mallery G. Picture-Writing of the American Indians. Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology. 1888, 10:4–822.
2. Boas F. Tsimshian Mythology. Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology. 1909, 31:5–1019.
3. Boas F. Tsimshian Mythology. Washington: Government Printing Office; 1916.
4. Boas F. Kwakiutl Ethnography. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1966.
5. Mauss M. Essai Sur Le Don, Forme et Raison de L’échange Dans Les Sociétés Archaïques. L’Année Sociologique, Seconde série. 1923, 1:30–183.
6. Denig ET. Indian Tribes of the Upper Missouri. Washington, D.C: 46th Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, 1930.
7. Conzemius E. Ethnographical Survey Of The Miskito And Sumu Indians Of Honduras And Nicaragua. Washington: Bureau Of American Ethnology, 1932.
8. Blackwood B. Both Sides of Buka Passage: An Ethnographic Study of Social, Sexual, and Economic Questions in the North-Western Solomon Islands. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1935.
9. Parsons EC. Pueblo Indian Religion. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1939.
10. Drucker P. Kwakiutl dancing societies. Anthropological Records. 1940, 2: 201–230.
11. Cooper JM. The Gros Ventres of Montana: Part 2, Religion and Ritual. Washington: Catholic University of America Press, 1957.
12. Grinsell LV. The breaking of objects as a funerary rite. Folklore. 1961, 72: 475–491.
13. Mauzé M, Meillassoux C, Testart A, Legros D, Gruzinski S. Boas, les Kwagul et le potlatch. Éléments pour une réevaluation. L’Homme. 1986, 26: 21–63.
14. Emmons GT. The Tlingit Indians. New-York: American Museum of Natural History, 1991.
15. Rucks M. The Social Context and Cultural Meaning of Ground Stone Milling Among Washoe Women. Unpublished M.A. Thesis. Reno: University of Nevada, 1995.
16. Walter MN, Fridman E. Shamanism: An Encyclopedia of World Beliefs, Practices, and Culture. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2004.
17. Brück J. Fragmentation, personhood and the social construction of technology in Middle and Late Bronze Age Britain. Cambridge Archaeological Journal. 2006, 16: 297–315.
18. Pratt C. An Encyclopedia of Shamanism. 1st ed. 2 vols. New York: Rosen Pub. Group., 2007.
19. Adams J. Beyond the Broken. In: Rowan Y, Ebeling J, editors. New Approaches to Old Stones. London: Equinox Publishing Ltd, 2008. pp. 213–229.
20. Buonasera T. More than acorns and small seeds: A diachronic analysis of mortuary associated ground stone from the South San Francisco Bay Area. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology. 2013, 32: 190–211.
21. Stroulia A, Chondrou D. Destroying the means of production. The case of ground stone tools from Kremasti-Kilada, Greece. In: Driessen J, editor. Destruction: Archaeological, Philological and Historical Perspectives. Louvain: Presses Universitaires de Louvain, 2013. pp.100–150.
22. Gunther E. Klallam ethnography. University of Washington Publications in Anthropology. 1927, 1: 171–314.
23. Perodie JR. Feasting for prosperity: A study of southern Northwest Coast feasting. In: Dietler M, Hayden B, editors. Feasts: Archaeological and Ethnographic Perspectives on Food, Politics, and Power. Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press, 2001. pp.185–214.
24. Grosman L, Munro N, Belfer-Cohen A. A 12,000-year-old shaman burial from the Southern Levant (Israel). PNAS. 2008, 105:17665–17669. doi: 10.1073/pnas.0806030105 18981412
25. Vandiver P, Soffer O, Klima B, Svoboda J. The origins of ceramic technology at Dolni Věstonice, Czechoslovakia. Science. 1989, 246: 1002–1008. doi: 10.1126/science.246.4933.1002 17806391
26. Maher L, Richter T, Macdonald D, Jones M, Martin L, Stock J. Twenty Thousand-Year-Old Huts at a Hunter-Gatherer Settlement in Eastern Jordan. PLoS ONE 2012: e31447. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0031447 22355366
27. Dubreuil L, Nadel D. The development of plant food processing in the Levant: Insight from use-wear analysis of early Epipaleolithic ground stone tools. Philosophical Transaction B. 2015, 370: 201403–201457.
28. Ronen A. Grinding tools as grave goods. In: Derwich E, editor. Préhistoire des pratiques funéraires. Liège: Eraul 102, 2003. pp. 63–68.
29. Nadel D, Rosenberg D, Yeshurun R. The deep and the shallow: The role of Natufian bedrock features at Rosh Zin, Central Negev, Israel. BASOR. 2009, 355: 1–28.
30. Richter T, Bocaege E, Ilsøe P, Ruter A, Pantos A, Pedersen P, et al. Ochre, ground stone, and wrapping the dead in the Late Epipalaeolithic (Natufian) Levant: Revealing the funerary practices at Shubayqa 1, Jordan. Journal of Field Archaeology, https://doi.org/10.1080/00934690.2019.1645546.
31. Gravel-Miguel C, Riel-Salvatore J, Maggi R, Martino G, Barton CM. The breaking of ochred pebble tools as part of funerary ritual in the Arene Candide epigravettian cemetery. Cambridge Archaeological Journal. 2017, 27: 331–50.
32. Bougard E. Les céramiques gravettiennes de Moravie: derniers apports des recherches actuelles. L’Anthropologie 2011, 115: 465–504.
33. Farbstein R, Davies W. Palaeolithic ceramic technology: The artistic origins and impacts of a technological innovation. Quaternary International 2017, 441: 3–11.
34. Edwards P. Visual representations in stone and bone. In: Edwards P, editor. Wadi Hammeh 27: An Early Natufian Settlement at Pella in Jordan, Brill: Leiden, 2013. Pp. 287–320.
35. Edwards P. The symbolic dimensions of material culture at Wadi Hammeh 27. In: Córdoba JM, Molist M, Pérez M.C, Rubio C, Martínez S, editors. Proceedings of the 5th International Congress on the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East, Vol. III. Centro Superior de Estudios sobre el Oriente Próximo y Egipto: Madrid, 2008.pp 507–20.
36. Major J. Ritual production, intra-site activities and individual expression. An analysis of art from the Natufian site of Wadi Hammeh 27, Jordan. Journal of Historical and European Studies 2009, 2: 69–84.
37. Rosenberg D. Not ‘Just Another Brick in the Wall?’ The symbolism of groundstone tools in Natufian and Early Neolithic Southern Levantine constructions. Cambridge Archaeological Journal 2013, 23: 185–201.
38. Robitaille J. Le macro-outillage d’un site PPNA chypriote, Ayios-Tichonas Klimonas. In: Vigne J-D, Briois F, Tengberg M, editors. Nouvelles Données Sur Les Débuts Du Néolithique à Chypre. Société préhistorique française. Actes de La Scéance de La Société Préhistorique Française: Paris, 2017. pp. 135–65
39. Wright K. A classification system for ground stone tools from the prehistoric Levant. Paléorient. 1992, 18: 53–81.
40. Dikaios P. Khirokitia. Final Report on the Excavation of a Neolithic Settlement in Cyprus on Behalf of the Department of Antiquities. 1936–1946. London Oxford Univ. Press, 1953.
41. Rosenberg M, Nesbitt M, Redding W, Strasser F. Hallan Cemi Tepesi: Some preliminary observations concerning early Neolithic subsistence behaviors in Eastern Anatolia. Anatolica. 1995, 21: 1–12.
42. Lidström Holmberg C. Prehistoric grinding tools as metaphorical traces of the past. Current Swedish Archaeology. 1998, 6: 123–142.
43. Lidström Holmberg C. Quern tool technologies, social relations and the becoming of the Northernmost TRB. In: Hamon C, Graefe J, editors. New Perspectives on Querns in Neolithic Societies. Bonn: The Deutsche Gesellschaft für Ur- und Frühgeschichte. Dr Rudolf Habelt GmbH, 2008. pp. 69–92.
44. Graefe J.C, Hamon C, Lidström Holmberg C, Tsoraki C, Watts S. Subsistence, Social and Ritual Practices: Quern Deposits in the Neolithic Societies of Europe. In: Bonnardin S, Hamon C, Lauwers M, Quilliec B (editors). Réalités Archéologiques et Historiques Des “Dépôts” de La Préhistoire à Nos Jours. XXIXe Rencontres Internationales d’archéologie et d’histoire d’Antibes. Antibes, Editions APDCA, 2009. pp. 29–38.
45. van Gjin A, Verbaas A. Reconstructing the life history of querns: The case of the LBK site in Geleen-Janskamperveld (NL). In: de Araujo Igreja M, Conte IC, editors. Recent functional studies on non-flint stone tools: methodological improvements and archaeological inferences. CD-ROM publication, 2009.
46. Stroulia A. Flexible Stones. Ground Stone Tools from Franchthi Cave. Indiana: University Press Bloomington and Indianapolis, 2010.
47. Rosenberg D, Kaufman D, Yeshurun R, Weinstein-Evron M. The broken record: The Natufian groundstone assemblage from El-Wad Terrace (Mount Carmel, Israel)–Attributes and their interpretation. Eurasian Prehistory. 2013, 9: 93–128.
48. Watts S. The Life and Death of Querns. Oxford: Oxbow Books, 2014.
49. Wright K. Domestication and inequality? Households, corporate groups and food processing tools at Neolithic Çatalhöyük. J Anthropol Archaeol. 2014, 33: 1–33.
50. Ovadia A. Breaking New Ground: Ritualistic Breakage of Ground Stone Tools at the Verge of Agriculture. Unpublished M.A. Thesis. The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 2017.
51. Ronen A, Winter Y. Pebbles as Artifacts. Neo-Lithics. 1997, 3: 7–8.
52. Bocquentin F, Khalaily H, Bar-Yosef-Mayer D.E, Berna F, Biton R, Boness D, et al. Renewed excavations at Beisamoun: Investigating the 7th Millennium Cal. BC of the Southern Levant. Journal of The Israel Prehistoric Society 2014, 44: 5–99.
53. Spivak P, Nadel D. The Use of stone at Ohalo II, a 23,000 year old site in the Jordan Valley, Israel. Journal of Lithic Studies 2016, 3: 523–52.
54. Schiffer M. Formation Processes of the Archaeological Record. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1987.
55. Lyman RL. Vertebrate Taphonomy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994.
56. Dibble H, Shannon P, Chase P, Farrand W, Debénath A. Taphonomy and the concept of Paleolithic cultures: The case of the Tayacian from Fontéchevade (Charente, France). Paleoanthropology. 2006: 1–21.
57. Thiébaut C, Costamagno S, Coumont MP, Mourre V, Provenzano N, Théry-Parisot I. Approche expérimentale des conséquences du piétinement des grands herbivores sur les vestiges lithiques et osseux. Paleo. 2010, Supplément 3: 109–129.
58. Karr LP, Outram K. Tracking changes in bone fracture morphology over time: Environment, taphonomy, and the archaeological record. J Archaeol Sci. 2012, 39: 555–559.
59. Bailey D. Fragmentation in archaeology: People, places and broken objects in the prehistory of South-Eastern Europe. Am Anthropol. 2001, 103: 1181–1182.
60. Goring-Morris N, Belfer-Cohen A. Structures and dwellings in the Upper and Epi-Palaeolithic (ca 42–10k BP) Levant: Profane and symbolic uses. In: Vasil’ev S, Soffer O, Kozlowski SK, editors. Perceived Landscapes and Built Environments. Oxford: Bar International Series 1122, 2003. pp. 61–85.
61. Belfer-Cohen A. Rethinking social stratification in the Natufian Culture: The evidence from burials. In: Campbell S, Green A, editors. The Archaeology of Death in the Near East. Oxbow: Edinburgh, 1995. pp. 9–16.
62. Bocquentin F. Pratiques Funéraires, Paramètres Biologiques et Identités Culturelles Au Natoufien: Une Analyse Archéo-Anthropologique. Unpublished Ph.D. Thesis. University of Bordeaux I, 2003.
63. Nadel D, Danin A, Power RC, Rosen A, Bocquentin F, Tsatskin A, et al. Earliest floral grave lining from 13,700–11,700-year-old Natufian burials at Raqefet Cave, Mt. Carmel, Israel. PNAS. 2013, 110: 11774–11778. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1302277110 23818584
64. Grosman L, Munro N. A Natufian ritual event. Curr. Anthropol. 2016, 57:311–331.
65. Bocquentin F, Garrard A. Natufian collective burial practice and cranial pigmentation: A reconstruction from Azraq 18 (Jordan). J Archaeol Sci Rep. 2016, 10: 693–702.
66. Wright K. Ground Stone Assemblages Variation and Subsistence Strategies in the Levant, 22 000–5 500 BP. Unpublished Ph.D. Thesis. Yale University, 1992.
67. Wright K. Ground-stone tools and hunter-gatherer subsistence in Southwest Asia: Implications for the transition to farming. Am Antiq. 1994, 59:238–263.
68. Dubreuil L. Etude Fonctionnelle Des Outils de Broyage Natoufiens: Nouvelles Perspectives Sur l’émergence de l’Agriculture Au Proche-Orient. Unpublished PhD Thesis. University of Bordeaux I, 2002.
69. Dubreuil L. Long-term trends in Natufian subsistence: A use-wear analysis of ground stone tools. J Archaeol Sci. 2004, 31: 1613–1629.
70. Eitam D. Late Epipaleolithic rock-cut installations and groundstone tools in the Southern Levant. Paléorient. 2010, 35: 77–104.
71. Wright K. A classification system for ground stone tools from the prehistoric Levant. Paléorient. 1992, 18: 53–81.
72. Wright K. The social origins of cooking and dining in early villages of Western Asia. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society. 2000, 66: 89–121.
73. Munro N, Grosman L. Early evidence (ca. 12,000 B.P.) for feasting at a burial cave in Israel. PNAS. 2010, 107:15362–15366. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1001809107 20805510
74. Grosman L. Preserving cultural traditions in a period of instability: The Late Natufian of the hilly Mediterranean zone. Curr Anthropol. 2003, 44: 571–580.
75. Grosman L, Munroe N. The sacred and the mundane: Domestic activities at a Late Natufian burial site in the Levant. Before Farming. 2007, 4: 1–14.
76. Dubreuil L, Grosman L. The life history of macrolithic tools at Hilazon Tachtit cave. In: Bar-Yosef O, Valla F, editors. Natufian Foragers in the Levant. Ann Arbor: International Monograph in Prehistory, 2013. pp. 527–543.
77. Procopiou H. L’outillage de Mouture et de Broyage En Crête Minoenne, 2 Vols. Unpublished Ph.D. Thesis. University of Paris I–Sorbonne, 1998.
78. Adams J. Ground Stone Analysis. A Technological Approach. 2nd edition. The Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 2014.
79. Hamon C. Functional analysis of stone grinding and polishing tools from the earliest Neolithic of North-Western Europe. J Archaeol Sci. 2007, 36: 1502–1520.
80. Folorunso C.A. The archaeology and ethnoarchaeology of soap and dye making at Ijaye, Yorubaland. African Archaeological Review. 2002, 19: 127–145.
81. Hakbijl T. The traditional, historical and prehistoric use of ashes as an insecticide, with an experimental study on the insecticidal efficacy of washed ash. Environmental Archaeology. 2002, 7: 13–22.
82. Hosoya LA. Staple or famine food? Ethnographic and archaeological approaches to nut processing in East Asian Prehistory. Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences. 2011, 3: 7–17.
83. Lev E, Lev-Yadun S. The probable pagan origin of an ancient Jewish custom: Purification with red heifer’s ashes. Advances in Anthropology. 2016, 6: 122–126.
84. Ortner S. Purification rite. Encyclopaedia Britannica, Online publication, 2018. Available from: https://www.britannica.com/topic/purification-rite
85. Ringel G. The Kawkiutl potlatch: History, economics, and symbols. Ethnohistory. 1979, 26: 347–362.
86. Hayden B. Feasting and social dynamics in the Epipaleolithic of the Fertile Crescent. In: Aranda G, Monton S, Sanchez M, editors. Guess who’s coming to dinner. Oxford: Oxbow, 2011. pp. 30–63.
87. Chapman J, Gaydarska B. Part and Wholes. Fragmentation in Prehistoric Context. Oxford: Oxbow Books, 2007.
88. Chapman J, Gaydarska B. Fragmenting hominins and the presencing of early Palaeolithic social worlds. In: Dunbar R, Gamble C, Gowlett J, editors. Social Brain, Distributed Mind. British Academy Scholarship Online, 2010. pp 412–47.
89. Gamble C. Origins and Revolutions. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007.
90. Brittain M, Harris O. Enchaining arguments and fragmenting assumptions: Reconsidering the fragmentation debate in archaeology. World Archaeol. 2010, 42: 581–94.
91. Schroeder B. Natufian in the Central Béqaa Valley, Libanon. In: Bar-Yosef O, Valla F, editors. The Natufian Culture in the Levant. Ann Arbor: International Monograph in Prehistory Archaeological, 1991. pp. 43–80.
92. Rosenberg D, Nadel D. The sounds of pounding. Boulder mortars and their significance to Natufian burial customs. Curr Anthropol. 2014, 55: 784–812.
93. Kaufman D, Ronen A. La Sépulture kébarienne géométrique de Neve David, Haïfa, Israël. L’Anthropologie. 1987, 91:335–342.
94. Ucko P. Ethnography and archaeological interpretation of funerary remains. World Archaeol. 1969, 1: 262–80. doi: 10.1080/00438243.1969.9979444 16468206
95. Carr C. Mortuary practices: Their social, philosophical-religious, circumstantial, and physical determinants. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory. 1995, 2: 105–200.
96. Lengyel G, Nadel D, Bocquentin F. The Natufian at Raqefet Cave. In: Bar-Yosef O, Valla F, editors. Natufian Foragers in the Levant. Ann Arbor: International Monographs in Prehistory, 2013. pp. 478–504.
97. Yeshurun R, Bar-Oz G, Nadel D. The social role of food in the Natufian cemetery of Raqefet Cave, Mount Carmel, Israel. J Anthropol Archaeol. 2013, 32: 511–526.
98. Noy T, Legge AJ, Higgs ES. Recent excavation at Nahal Oren, Israel. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society. 1973, 39: 75–99.
Článek vyšel v časopise
PLOS One
2019 Číslo 10
- S diagnostikou Parkinsonovy nemoci může nově pomoci AI nástroj pro hodnocení mrkacího reflexu
- Je libo čepici místo mozkového implantátu?
- Pomůže v budoucnu s triáží na pohotovostech umělá inteligence?
- AI může chirurgům poskytnout cenná data i zpětnou vazbu v reálném čase
- Nová metoda odlišení nádorové tkáně může zpřesnit resekci glioblastomů
Nejčtenější v tomto čísle
- Correction: Low dose naltrexone: Effects on medication in rheumatoid and seropositive arthritis. A nationwide register-based controlled quasi-experimental before-after study
- Combining CDK4/6 inhibitors ribociclib and palbociclib with cytotoxic agents does not enhance cytotoxicity
- Experimentally validated simulation of coronary stents considering different dogboning ratios and asymmetric stent positioning
- Risk factors associated with IgA vasculitis with nephritis (Henoch–Schönlein purpura nephritis) progressing to unfavorable outcomes: A meta-analysis
Zvyšte si kvalifikaci online z pohodlí domova
Všechny kurzy