Technological complexity and symbolism of risk-avoidance hunting strategies and of bone ornamentation in the Upper Palaeolithic in the Balkans

The paper considers archaeological peculiarities in the evolution of the Gravettian and Epi-Gravettian sequences in Temnata cave, northern Bulgaria. These include the constant prey spectrum, raw material supply strategies and the associated increase in the thinness of the blades, the appearance of typical artefact forms, and a wide variety of ornaments made of ‘exotic’ raw materials. An explanatory model is proposed that considers the association of subsistence strategies with symbolic constitution of the Temnata Gravettian and Epi-Gravettian human groups and their identification practices along the line of the social and symbolic continuum : danger - prestige - social benefits.