From these bare bones : raw materials and the study of worked osseous objects / edited by Alice Choyke and Sonia O'Connor.

"Proceedings of the Raw Materials Session at the 11th ICAZ Conference, Paris, 2010."

Includes bibliographical references.

Preface / Jean-Denis Vigne, Christine Lefèvre and Marylène Patou-Mathis -- Introduction to the volume / Alice Choyke and Sonia O’Connor -- 1. Hidden agendas : Ancient Raw Material Choice for Worked Osseous Objects in Central Europe and Beyond / Alice Choyke -- 2. Osseous Retouchers from the Final Mousterian and Uluzzian Levels at the Fumane Cave (Verona, Italy) : Preliminary Results / Camille Jequier, Matteo Romandini and Marco Peresani -- 3. Raw Material used in the Manufacture of Osseous Artefacts during the Portuguese Upper Palaeolithic / Marina Almeida Evora -- 4. The Identification of Perishable Technologies through Usewear on Osseous Tools : Wear Patterns on Historic and Contemporary Tools as a Standard for Identifying Raw Materials Worked in the Late Upper Palaeolithic / Elisabeth A. Stone -- 5. Bone Material and Design Choices in Southern Patagonia / Vivian Scheinsohn -- 6. Changed into Tools : Camelid Bones from the Southern Calchaquies Valleys (Formative Period, Northwestern Argentina) / Andres D. Izeta, Roxana Cattaneo, M. Cristina Scattolin and Leticia I. Cortes -- 7. Osseous Raw Materials in Vinca Culture / Selena Vitezovic -- 8. Seals, Seal Hunting and Worked Seal Bones in Estonian Coastal Region in the Neolithic and Bronze Age / Heidi Luik -- 9. Specialization or Re-utilization? Study of the Selection Documented in a Bone-Working Refuse Assemblage from Roman Baetulo (Badalona, Spain) / Lidia Colominas -- 10. The Materiality of Production : Exploring Variability and Choice in the Production of Palaeolithic Portable Art made in Antler and Bone / Rebecca Farbstein -- 11. Evidence of Bone Technology on the Santa Fes Pampa Lagoons : The Laguna El Doce Site (Santa Fe Province, Argentina) / Jimena Cornaglia Fernandez and Natacha Buc -- 12. Beyond Stones : Bone as Raw Material for Tools in the Central Plateau of Santa Cruz, Argentinean Patagonia / Laura Miotti and Laura Marchionni -- 13. The Meaning of "Smoothing" Implements from the Levantine PPNB seen from the Basta Perspective / Cornelia Becker -- 14. Tubular Bone Artefacts in Burial Context at Ajvide, Gotland c. 2500 cal BC. : Are They Musical Instruments? / Kristiina Manermaa and Riitta Rainio -- 15. Strict Rules, Loose Rules : Raw Material Preferences at the Late Neolithic Site of Aszod, Central Hungary / Zsuzsanna Toth -- 16. More than Fun and Games : An Experimental Study of Worked Bone Astragali from Two Middle Bronze Age Hungarian Sites / Jacqueline Meier -- 17. Economic and Social Context of Bone Tool Use, Formative Bolivia / Katherine Moore -- New Methods of Materials Identification -- 18. Exotic Materials Used in the Construction of Iron Age Sword Handles from South Cave, UK / Sonia O'Connor -- 19. An Introduction to ZooMS (Zooarchaeology by Mass Spectromtry) for Taxonomic Identification of Worked and Raw Materials / Oliver W. Hounslow, Joanna P. Simpson, Lauren Whalley Matthew J. Collins -- 20. Some Comments on the Identification of Cervid Species in Worked Antler / Steven P. Ashby.

A fundamental component of the study of worked osseous objects is the identification of the raw materials chosen to make them. In archaeological contexts many objects become degraded to the point where identification is very difficult and the way in which these materials decay during burial and upon excavation can vary greatly. Correct identification is crucial to the investigation of objects, their conservation and future curation. Above all, understanding raw material selection aids our understanding of human-animal interaction in the past both on pragmatic and symbolic levels since the choices made by artisans vary by cultural tradition as well as availability. The 20 papers presented here explore a wealth of information pertaining to the use of osseous materials over the long period of human craftsmanship and tool manufacture by exploring several key themes : 1. Raw material selection and curation within tool types 2. Social aspects of raw material selection 3. New methods of materials identification. It is demonstrated that the issue of raw material identification has numerous implications for conservation work, reproduction of objects, the physical characteristics of the tool or ornament, availability of raw materials, the materials chosen for procurement and the cultural reasons that lie behind the choice of raw materials from particular species and skeletal elements to produce planned tool and ornament types. Together, these papers emphasize the need for confident and correct materials identification and demonstrate that functionality is by no means the only, nor necessarily the most important, factor in the selection of osseous raw materials for the fabrication of tools and other cultural objects.