Currently browsing tag

ivory

Bronze Age Dagger

A quartz crystal dagger with ivory handle was recovered from a Copper-Age tomb in southern Spain in 2008 within a highly unusual grave assemblage, dominated by exotic Ivory objects. This unique object has a blade, around 18cm long, made from a single piece of quartz crystal that was mounted in a highly decorated ivory handle and found accompanied by a carved ivory plaque, probably part of its sheath. Continue reading →

Bone Flute

Music is ubiquitous in all societies today, yet it is often seen as a "luxury" by writers on human evolution and not as important as spoken language.  Unlike those writers, we shall explore the functions music can play in societies today, and use such insights to evaluate the musical instruments that begin to appear in the archaeological record from 40,000 years ago. Continue reading →