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Title:

Studies on a raw material : the Eurasian elkin Central Europe at the end of the Pleistocene

Subject and Keywords:

Cervalces   Alces   Middle Pleistocene   Upper Pleistocene   Poland

Abstract:

The chapter reports on morphometric analysis of an object made of antlerof the Eurasian elk (Alces alces), found at Rusinowo, Pomerania, dated as the Allerød-‑Younger Dryas transition (10 700 ± 60 BP, or 10 780-10 610 BC). This is the earliest recordconfirming the occurrence of the elk after the retreat of the glacier from the presentdayterritory of Poland. The analysis shows that the material of the object is antler ofa relatively large size, from an animal aged approximately 10-15 years. Microstructuralstudies reveal that at the time of the animal’s death the antler was in its growth stage(spring-summer), and thus belonged to an elk killed during a hunt or dead from someother cause. The Eurasian elk (Alces alces) was one of the pioneer species which, after theextinction or withdrawal of large Pleistocene mammals from Poland at the end of the IcePleistocene played a major role in the human diet and in religious rituals.

DOI:

doi:10.23734/22.18.109

Language:

eng

Rights holder:

Copyright by Uniwersytet Wrocławski, Wydział Nauk Historycznych i Pedagogicznych