The biography of decorated antler adzes from Montières (France) suggests a magic function in Mesolithic art

Résumé En

Prehistoric studies of portable art usually tend to analyse either the categories of tools supposedly decorated or only the decorations themselves, in order to establish past artistic conventions and styles. By using the technological approach pertaining to highlight concepts involved in implementing from bone material, we wish to reconcile mobiliary art with artefact studies to explore the significance of non-figurative representation as decorative versus symbolic. The paper examines the tool’s biography through complementary disciplinary fields in natural (osteology, taphonomy) and human (typology, technology, traceology) sciences. The succession of chronological events, from extracting the raw material to utilising the decorated implement, is reconstructed by using a single analytical framework that analyses the ornamentation as a feature like any other feature constituting the artefact and participating in the making of the tool. The complete art piece from Montières (France) is described in technical detail. Thanks to another similar French specimen, fortunately dated, its chronological timeframe is suggested to be in the Mesolithic and a list of similarly decorated heavy-duty antler tools is established for Europe. Based on the hidden character of their recurrent engraved register of drilled motifs, the study suggests a trans-regional magic symbolism that was shared in regions facing the English Channel in 7,500 cal BP.