Abstract
The development of technological analysis at the end of the 1900s made it possible to explore new aspects of the production of artifacts from animal materials, especially bones and teeth, by Holocene Saharan societies. Here, we reappraise a selected set of these artifacts excavated from the shelter sites of Ti-n-Torha Two Caves, Ti-n-Torha East, and Ti-n-Torha North, in the Libyan desert of the Tadrart Akakus. These sites were occupied from ca. 10,500 cal BP to 6050 cal BP, first by hunter-gatherer groups, and then by pastoralists. New methodologies have allowed us to identify trends in the selection of raw materials, animal species, and the methods and techniques used in the manufacture of the objects. Stylistic choices, in particular, are one of the most representative traits of the pre-pastoral groups that occupied this area; they are also perhaps the first evidence for significant continuity across the three sites in the mode of production of objects from teeth and bones.
Résumé
Le développement de l’étude technologique à la fin des années 1900 a permis d’explorer de nouveaux aspects de la production matérielle d’origine animale, en particulier les os et les dents, dans les sociétés holocènes sahariennes. Sur ce type de tendance méthodologique se fonde la réévaluation récente d’un échantillon sélectionné d’objets en os et dent provenant des sites en abri de Ti-n-Torha Deux Grottes, Ti-n-Torha Est and Ti-n-Torha Nord, dans le désert libyen du Tadrart Akakus. Ces sites ont montré une occupation sur le territoire allant de 10,500 cal BP à 6050 cal BP. Les données que nous présentons nous permettent d’introduire certaines tendances dans la sélection des matières premières, des espèces animales, et des méthodes et des techniques choisies dans la fabrication des artefacts. Les choix stylistiques en particulier sont l’un des traits les plus représentatifs des groupes pré-pastoraux qui ont occupé ces zones et, peut-être, un premier élément significatif de continuité dans le système de production des matières des origines animale dans les trois sites.
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Acknowledgments
We are grateful to Giulio Lucarini and Jörg Linstadter for inviting us to contribute to this special issue following our presentation at the Session XXII-1 of the IUSPP World Congress in Paris (June 2018). We would like to thank the Laboratory of Technological and Functional Analysis (LTFAPA) of the University of Rome “La Sapienza” and its supervisor, Cristina Lemorini, for access to the microscopes. We are sincerely grateful to Achilles Gautier for the taxonomical identification of the analyzed sample and Louiza Aoudia for the anthropological description of the human bone. We are indebted to Serge Oboukhoff for the photograph of some of the tools. Finally, a special thanks to Julie Dunne for reviewing the English draft of this paper.
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Petrullo, G., Barich, B.E. The Bone Artifact Collection from Wadi Ti-n-Torha (Northern Tadrart Akakus, Libya): A Reappraisal Based on Technological Analysis. Afr Archaeol Rev 38, 5–24 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10437-020-09374-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10437-020-09374-x