Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7czq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-23T04:28:11.825Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Dating Late Paleolithic Harpoons from Lake Lubāns, Latvia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 February 2016

John Meadows ,
Berit V Eriksen ,
Ilga Zagorska ,
Alexander Dreves  and
Joanna Simpson
John Meadows
Affiliation:
Zentrum für Baltische und Skandinavische Archäologie, Stiftung Schleswig-Holsteinische Landesmuseen, Schloss Gottorf, 24837 Schleswig, Germany Leibniz-Labor für Altersbestimmung und Isotopenforschung, Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, Germany
Berit V Eriksen
Affiliation:
Zentrum für Baltische und Skandinavische Archäologie, Stiftung Schleswig-Holsteinische Landesmuseen, Schloss Gottorf, 24837 Schleswig, Germany
Ilga Zagorska
Affiliation:
Institute of Latvian History, University of Latvia, Riga, Latvia
Alexander Dreves
Affiliation:
Leibniz-Labor für Altersbestimmung und Isotopenforschung, Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, Germany
Joanna Simpson
Affiliation:
BioArCh and Department of Chemistry, University of York, United Kingdom
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Over 3000 prehistoric bone and antler artifacts, collected in the late 1930s from the former lakebed of Lake Lubāns, are held by the National History Museum of Latvia. This collection is remarkable not only as one of the largest known assemblages of bone implements in northern Europe, but also in terms of diversity of forms. The most elaborately worked objects include harpoons, often with two rows of barbs and spade-shaped bases, which are believed to date to the Late Paleolithic, and to be among the oldest organic artifacts ever found in Latvia. Four broken specimens were sampled in 2011 for accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) dating, stable isotope analysis, and taxonomic attribution by ZooMS. The results support the interpretation that these artifacts were made from large cervid bones, and date all four objects to the early Preboreal (mid-10th millennium cal BC). The Lake Lubāns harpoons therefore fall in the same period as similar harpoons from Denmark, northern Germany, and Poland, although only a handful of these have been dated directly.

Type
Methodology: Generaland Bones
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 56 , Issue 2 , 2014 , pp. 581 - 589
Copyright
Copyright © 2014 by the Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of the University of Arizona 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Andersen, SH, Petersen, PV. 2009. Maglemosekulturens stortandede harpuner. Aarbøger for Nordisk Oldkyndighed og Historie 2005:7–41.Google Scholar
Bokelmann, K. 1988. Eine Rengeweihharpune aus der Bondenau bei Bistoft, Kreis Schleswig-Flensburg. Offa 45:5–15.Google Scholar
Bronk Ramsey, C. 2009. Bayesian analysis of radiocarbon dates. Radiocarbon 51(1):337–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bruhn, F, Duhr, A, Grootes, PM, Mintrop, A, Nadeau, M-J. 2001. Chemical removal of conservation substances by ‘Soxhlet’-type extraction. Radiocarbon 43(2A):229–37.Google Scholar
Buckley, M, Collins, M, Thomas-Oates, J, Wilson, JC. 2009. Species identification by analysis of bone collagen using matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry. Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry 23(23):3843–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cziesla, E. 2004. Late Upper Palaeolithic and Mesolithic cultural continuity – or: bone and antler objects from the Havelland. In: Terberger, T, Eriksen, BV, editors. Hunters in a changing world. Environment and Archaeology of the Pleistocene-Holocene transition (ca. 11000–9000 BC) in Northern Central Europe. Internationale Archäologie 5:165–82.Google Scholar
Cziesla, E, Pettitt, P. 2003. AMS-14C-Datierungen von spätpaläolithischen und mesolithischen Funden aus dem Bützsee (Brandenburg). Archäologisches Korrespondenzblatt 33:21–38.Google Scholar
DeNiro, MJ. 1985. Postmortem preservation and alteration of in vivo bone collagen isotope ratios in relation to palaeodietary reconstruction. Nature 317(6040):806–9.Google Scholar
Dobberstein, RC, Collins, MJ, Craig, OE, Taylor, G, Penkman, KEH, Ritz-Timme, S. 2009 Archaeological collagen: Why worry about collagen diagenesis? Journal of Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences 1(1):31–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Drucker, DG, Bridault, A, Hobson, KA, Szuma, E, Bocherens, H. 2008. Can carbon-13 in large herbivores reflect the canopy effect in temperate and boreal ecosystems? Evidence from modern and ancient ungulates. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 266(1–2):69–82.Google Scholar
Drucker, DG, Bridault, A, Cupillard, C, Hujic, A, Bocherens, H. 2011. Evolution of habitat and environment of red deer (Cervus elaphus) during the Late-glacial and early Holocene in eastern France (French Jura and the western Alps) using multi-isotope analysis (δ13C, δ5N, δ18O, δ34S) of archaeological remains. Quaternary International 245(2):268–78.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fischer, A, Tauber, H. 1986. New C-14 datings of Late Palaeolithic cultures from northwestern Europe. Journal of Danish Archaeology 5(1):7–13.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gramsch, B, Beran, J, Hanik, S, Sommer, RS. 2013. A Palaeolithic fishhook made of ivory and the earliest fishhook tradition in Europe. Journal of Archaeological Science 40(5):2458–63.Google Scholar
Harbeck, M, Grupe, G. 2009. Experimental chemical degradation compared to natural diagenetic alteration of collagen: implications for collagen quality indicators for stable isotope analysis. Journal of Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences 1(1):43–57.Google Scholar
Longin, R. 1971. New method of collagen extraction for radiocarbon dating. Nature 230(5291):241–2.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mathiassen, T. 1938. Some unusual Danish harpoons. Acta Archaeologica 9:224–8.Google Scholar
Nadeau, M-J, Grootes, PM, Schleicher, M, Hasselberg, P, Rieck, A, Bitterling, M. 1998. Sample throughput and data quality at the Leibniz-Labor AMS facility. Radiocarbon 40(1):239–45.Google Scholar
Noe-Nygaard, N, Price, TD, Hede, SU. 2005. Diet of aurochs and early cattle in southern Scandinavia: evidence from 15N and 13C stable isotopes. Journal of Archaeological Science 32(6):855–71.Google Scholar
Petersen, PV. 2009. Stortandede harpuner – og jagt på hjortevildt til vands. Aarbøger for Nordisk Oldkyndighed og Historie 2005:43–54.Google Scholar
Reimer, PJ, Bard, E, Bayliss, A, Beck, JW, Blackwell, PG, Bronk Ramsey, C, Grootes, PM, Guilderson, TP, Haflidason, H, Hajdas, I, Hatté, C, Heaton, TJ, Hoffmann, DL, Hogg, AG, Hughen, KA, Kaiser, KF, Kromer, B, Manning, SW, Niu, M, Reimer, RW, Richards, DA, Scott, EM, Southon, JR, Staff, RA, Turney, CSM, van der Plicht, J. 2013. IntCal13 and Marine13 radiocarbon age calibration curves 0–50,000 years cal BP. Radiocarbon 55(4):1869–87.Google Scholar
Stuiver, M, Reimer, PJ. 1993. Extended 14C data base and revised CALIB 3.0 14C age calibration program. Radiocarbon 35(1):215–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Taute, W. 1968. Die Stielspitzen-Gruppen in nördlichen Mitteleuropa. Ein Beitrag zur Kenntnis der späten Altsteinzeit. Köln: Fundamenta A/5.Google Scholar
Ukkonen, P, Lõugas, L, Zagorska, I, Lukševica, L, Lukševics, E, Daugnora, L, Jungner, H. 2006. History of the reindeer (Rangifer tarandus) in the eastern Baltic region and its implications for the origin and immigration routes of the recent northern European wild reindeer populations. Boreas 35(2):222–30.Google Scholar
Vankina, L. 1999. The Collection of Stone Age Bone and Antler Artefacts from Lake Lubāna. Riga: Latvijas Vēstures Muzeja Raksti Nr 4.Google Scholar
Ward, GK, Wilson, SR. 1978. Procedures for comparing and combining radiocarbon age determinations: a critique. Archaeometry 20(1):19–31.Google Scholar
Zagorska, I. 1983. Bone fishing and hunting implements from the Latvian Stone Age [unpublished PhD thesis]. Riga: Archive of the Institute of Latvian History. In Russian.Google Scholar
Zagorska, I. 1999. The earliest settlement of Latvia. In: Miller, U, Hackens, T, Lang, V, Raukas, A, Hicks, S, editors. Environmental and Cultural History of the Eastern Baltic Region. PACT 57:131–56.Google Scholar
Zagorska, I. 2006. The earliest antler and bone harpoons from the East Baltic. Archaeologica Baltica 7:178–86.Google Scholar
Zagorska, I. 2012. Senie ziemežbriežu mednieki Latvijā (The Ancient Reindeer Hunters in Latvia). Riga: Zinātne. In Latvian.Google Scholar
Zelčs, V, Markots, A, Nartišs, M, Saks, T. 2011. Pleistocene glaciations in Latvia. In: Ehlers, J, Gibbard, PL, Hughes, PD, editors. Quaternary Glaciations – Extent and Chronology: A Closer Look. Developments in Quaternary Sciences 15. Amsterdam: Elsevier. p 221–9.Google Scholar