Development and utilization of the animal ribs in Paleolithic period
Received date: 2023-12-26
Accepted date: 2024-04-16
Online published: 2025-04-15
Animal bones are important resources available to ancient humans. In addition to lithic artifacts, faunal remains are the most common archaeological evidence in Paleolithic sites. Ribs, as an important component of animal bones, are exploited and utilized by ancient humans in many ways. They were not only processed into various types of tools and ornaments, but also consumed as bone fat and employed as fuel.
Ribs are one of the important raw materials for the production of bone artifacts. Understanding the utilization of ribs is of great significance for studying the development strategies of ancient humans in the Paleolithic Age who used animal bones to manufacture artifacts. Currently, rib artifacts in archaeological sites have been extensively reported and studied by foreign scholars, but there is still insufficient attention has been paid to rib artifacts in China. This paper provides a systematic review of major archaeological discoveries of rib artifacts around the world and summarizes the types and chaîne opératoire of rib artifacts. Additionally, we discuss the possibility of ancient humans selecting ribs as raw materials and the existing problems in rib artifacts research.
The results show that the rib artifacts in Lower Paleolithic were often used without retouching, or within simple knapping and retouching, and the function of the tool was difficult to determine. Until the Middle and Upper Paleolithic, with a deeper understanding of bone raw materials, ancient humans used appropriate methods such as scraping and grinding to retouch bones. The types of artifacts were gradually rich, and there were tools such as smoothers, points, needles, awls, and so on. In addition, there were engravings on the ribs. From the chaîne opératoire of rib artifacts, it can be found that when ancient humans used ribs, they often need to remove the extremities first. The rib blanks were divided into split and unsplit. The cortical view, medullary view and edges were scraped and retouched, and then processed into suitable tools.
Focusing on the exploitation and utilization of animal ribs in the Paleolithic Age is crucial for discussing the exploitation of animal bone resources, the technology of bone tool making and the cognitive development of bones by ancient humans. It is expected that this study will encourage greater attention towards rib artifacts within the field of Paleolithic research, as well as more new archaeological discoveries of rib artifacts in China. This will provide more abundant materials and understanding for the exploitation and utilization of animal ribs by ancient humans in the Paleolithic Age in China and even in East Asia.
Key words： Paleolithic; rib utlization; artifacts; chaîne opératoire
TANG Yimeng , LIU Yang . Development and utilization of the animal ribs in Paleolithic period[J]. Acta Anthropologica Sinica, 2025 , 44(02) : 220 -229 . DOI: 10.16359/j.1000-3193/AAS.2024.0080
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