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Ivory wieghts from Předmostí and Pavlov
Svoboda, Jiří
As early as 1884, an object carved of mesial part of a mammoth tusk from Předmostí was described by J. Wankel, and interpreted by him as a weight. Obviously, the utility of such artefacts lies in their weight and in the fixation by fibrous cordage. A comparative study shows that between 30-15 ky, analogical objects appear repeatedly in various Gravettian phases and facies, as well as in Late Aurignacian (Pavlov, Willendorf, Alberndorf, Kostenki, Mezin). In order to approach more precisely their function within the technological system of these settlements, archaeological observations (the context, traces of damage from beating) and analogies (ethnoarchaeology, experimental archaeology) are applied. These methods suggest a variety of alternatives, but none of them is proved unequivocally. Even if the approach of this paper is preferentially functional and technological, an additional symbolic meaning of some of these objects (cf. their anthropomorph "heads") should not be neglected a priori.
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