New data on ornamented artefacts from the Mesolithic site Pobiel 10, Lower Silesia, Poland

Abstract

New data on ornamented artefacts from the Mesolithic site Pobiel 10, Lower Silesia, Poland

Three ornamented pieces of red deer antler from the Mesolithic site at Pobiel 10, one of them with a zoomorphic motif, have been reanalysed. They were deposited in the so-called level 1 of the former riverbed and dated generally to the second part of the Boreal period. Our research aimed at establishing the technology used to produce these artefacts and ornaments. We also studied similar ornaments from Northern Europe in the context of the deposition of our artefacts. Although the analysed ornamented artefacts have some stylistic similarities with the northwestern province of Mesolithic art, their style is also locally specific. A new date for the ornamented antler tine and all the radiocarbon dating allow us to date the two other pieces to the end of the Boreal and the beginning of the Atlantic period.