Bones at a Crossroads

Markus Wild studied in France and Germany and works as postdoctoral research fellow at the Centre for Baltic and Scandinavian Archaeology, Germany. His research projects try to elucidate human behavioural evolution and particularly focus on the material culture and chronology of the Upper Palaeolithic to Mesolithic in northwestern Europe. He has developed expertise in technological analysis and radiocarbon dating of worked bone. His research interests also include risk management in hunter-gatherer societies, children’s learning, and interdisciplinary approaches to archaeology. Beverly A. Thurber is an independent scholar based in the Chicago area whose main research interest is early ice skating, especially bone skates. She has four degrees in four different things, including a PhD from Cornell University, and has studied in the US, the UK, and Germany. From 2009 to 2017, she taught a variety of courses in mathematics, science, and the humanities at Shimer College. Her book Skates Made of Bone: A History was published in 2020. Stephen Rhodes is a zooarchaeologist interested in the shift from hunting to herding in the Neolithic of Southwest Asia. He has worked in Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan, and since 2017 is involved in an ongoing project in Kvemo Kartli, Georgia. The large numbers of bone tools recovered from the excavations in Georgia have led him to incorporate these objects, and the perishable technologies they represent, into his analysis of Neolithic subsistence change. He is currently a Doctoral Candidate in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Toronto. Christian Gates St-Pierre is Assistant Professor at the Université de Montréal, Canada. His research projects are focusing on the subsistence and material culture of Pre-Contact Iroquoian societies in Northeastern North America. He has developed an expertise in the technological and functional analysis of worked bone, including microwear analysis. His research interests also include social archaeology, ethical issues, and the politics of archaeological heritage.

• IntroductionChristian Gates St-Pierre, Markus Wild, Beverly A. Thurber, Stephen E. Rhodes Osseous arrowheads in the Iron Age of the Upper Ganga PlainsVinayak Uncovering some aspects of the worked bone assemblages from Periods I-III (Neolithic to Pre-Northern Black Polished Ware with Iron Cultures) of Agiabir, IndiaRavi Shankar, Pramod P. Joglekar, Sharada Channarayapatna, and Ashok Kumar Singh Magnifying the differences: Investigating variability in Dorset Paleo-Inuit organic material culture using microscopic analysisMatilda I. Siebrecht, Sean P. A. Desjardins, Sarah M. Hazell, Susan Lofthouse, Elsa Cencig, Katie Kotar, Peter D. Jordan, and Annelou van Gijn Antler as raw material among hunter-gatherer groups from the Pampean Region (Argentina)Natacha Buc, Alejandro A. Acosta, and Lucía T. Rombolá Osseous artifacts from the Maros-culture necropolis at Ostojićevo (northern Serbia)Selena Vitezović An antler workshop in a Germanic settlement in Nitra, SlovakiaGertrúda Březinová and Erik Hrnčiarik The worked bone and tooth assemblage from Piaçaguera: Insights and challengesDaniela Klokler Traceological evaluation of bone instruments as an indirect indicator: Rebuilding textile technology during the Ceramic period on Mocha Island (Chile)Helga Inostroza Rojas A microscopic view of Maya needle and perforator production at Ucanal, GuatemalaCarolyn Freiwald, Christina Halperin, Camille Dubois-Francoeur, Caroline Schlinsog, and Kimberly A. Bauer Warm it up! Using experimental archaeology to test shark teeth extraction hypothesesSimon-Pierre Gilson and Andrea Lessa Crafting white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) bone and antler at Cerro Juan Díaz (LS-3), Greater Coclé Culture Area, PanamaMaría Fernanda Martínez-Polanco, Luis Alberto Sánchez-Herrera, Máximo Jiménez-Acosta, and Richard G. Cooke Preliminary spatial analysis of the morphologically identifiable bone tools from an Early Bronze Age III domestic building in a residential neighborhood house at Tell eṣ-Ṣâfi/Gath (Stratum E5c)Sarah J. Richardson, Haskel J. Greenfield, Tina L. Greenfield, and Aren M. Maeir A Woodland-period bone tool industry on the northern Gulf of Mexico coastal plainGregory A. Waselkov, Sarah E. Price, Alexandra Stenson, Carla S. Hadden, and Long Dinh The many dimensions of a boneMarie-Ève Boisvert, Claire St-Germain, and Christian Gates St-Pierre