From operculum to bead: Production of pearls from opercular bones of Cyprinus carpio in the Romanian Eneolithic

Monica Ma˘rga˘rit, Valentin Radu and Dragomir Nicolae Popovici

Environmental Archaeology, 2016, vol. 21, issue 4, 351-360

Abstract: Significant amounts of opercular bones from Cyprinus carpio, used to manufacture circular pearls for adornments, were found from the Romanian Eneolithic, associated with the Gumelnita culture. The origins of this raw material are local: the carp was an important food resource for the communities located close to the River Danube. An experimental program was undertaken to obtain replicas of pearls of C. carpio, to compare with the archaeological pieces, in order to identify an a chain of manufacture resulting in the finished pieces. The study of the adornments represents an inexhaustible source of reflection because, through them we can identify aspects of the human groups' symbolical behaviour, and socio-economical aspects of these communities' evolution. In this case they suggest that the aquatic world, with its resources, had an important position in the spiritual life of these communities.

Date: 2016
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1179/1749631414Y.0000000019 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:yenvxx:v:21:y:2016:i:4:p:351-360

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/yenv20

DOI: 10.1179/1749631414Y.0000000019

Access Statistics for this article

Environmental Archaeology is currently edited by Tim Mighall

More articles in Environmental Archaeology from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().