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'Soffer O, Adovasio JM, Hyland DC, Klíma B, Svoboda J, 1998: Perishable Technologies and the Genesis of the Eastern Gravettian. Anthropologie (Brno) 36, 1-2: 43-68'. |
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| Abstract | | Past research on Paleolithic technologies has focused on the manufacturing and use of stone and, to a lesser extent, bone, antler, and ivory artifacts and the implications of these inventories for hunting strategies, subsistence practices, and settlement systems. Coeval technologies in less-durable media, sporadically reported from Paleolithic sites, have received much less attention and their implications for past lifeways have been left unexplored. This paper reports on numerous fiber, cordage, and textile impressions on fired clay fragments recovered from the Gravettian site of Pavlov I in the Czech Republic. This, together with coeval data from the nearby sites of Dolni V?stonice I and II, attests to the use of plant-derived fiber for the production of a broad range of perishable implements including cordage, possibly netting, and non-heddle-loom-woven twining some 15,000 years before such items are documented in the European Mesolithic or Neolithic. The extensive use of this perishable technology carries a number ofimportant implications and ramifications concerning past human lifeways for this portion of Europe. Specifically, as suggested by ethnographic data indicating that the fibers most likely employed in perishable production were harvested and processed in the fall, the existence of this industry suggests the Moravian sites were also occupied during that season. Moreover, since ethnographic data also indicate that the procurement, processing, and use of plant fibers is strongly associated with females, we argue that women were present and processing these items in Upper Paleolithic Moravian sites, thus supporting their identification as base camps.
[Only the half of the abstract] | | | | Keywords | | Gravettian - Pavlovian - Perishable technologies - Mass harvesting - Female labour | | |
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