The bone industry, decorative objects and art

The bone industry from Pavlov I is composed of finished and unfinished artifacts of various animal bones, antler and ivory. Not only for their number and good state of preservation, but especially for the richness of forms and types, these artifacts are decisive for defining a group of mammoth-hunters sites in the Central Europe as Pavlovian. Additional characteristic is being supplied by the decorative objects and the art, carved most frequently of ivory: the elaborate head-bands, relief pendants, and further anthropomorph and zoomorph carvings. They prove a high degree of mastery in working this noble and precious material. Some of the tools yield evidence of the applied technological procedures: i.e., the mode of antler chipping differs from that described from the Magdalenian.

The tools were mostly found scattered around the hearths. Among the exceptions are a concentration of antler tools, which, however, does not represent a workshop area, and several concentrations of pendants, obviously the remains of colliers.

The description presented here is preliminary. The objects are worth of a more detailed comparative and synthetical study, based on the total material of the site. Until now, such a comparison exists for the antler industry (Klíma 1987a). The type-list created for the first two seasons is valid for the total assemblage as well. It aims to incorporate almost completely the variability of types and forms. There are 419 objects, 273 of which belong to the bone industry.