Wear formation on shell ornaments: mechanical and actualistic experiments, two complementary approaches

Description

Understanding the meaning of prehistoric ornaments allows us to penetrate the social and symbolic universe of human groups. Even if certain elements of adornment are very standardized, the variety of their arrangement and/or the way of wearing offers a polysemy that can express a diversity of information about the wearer. Interpreting the biography of these objects is therefore a key step. The reconstitution of ornamental compositions require experimentation. It is the use-wear that by their characteristics (forms, location ...) give us indications to approach the organisation of the various elements that make up the ornaments. Two modes of experimentation are presented here. On the one hand, mechanical experiments in the laboratory allow to control precisely different parameters. On the other hand, the actual wearing of the ornaments makes it possible to determine the variables which, although difficult to control, intervene in a determining way on the wear of the shells. The test was conducted on two species: Columbella rustica and Tritia neritea. The results show that the use-wear patterns can be distinguished by the type of traces and their distribution on the shell. These protocols are complementary and provide valuable information for identifying how prehistoric ornamental compositions were made.

Abstract

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