The Production and Use of Cordage in the Balearic Bronze Age: The Cova des Pas (Ferreries, Menorca)

Susagna Romero-Brugués, Raquel Piqué, Llorenç Picornell-Gelabert, Manel Calvo and Josep M. Fullola Pericot

Environmental Archaeology, 2021, vol. 26, issue 2, 122-130

Abstract: The study of plant-fibre remains in the Mediterranean is limited due to the scarce archaeological sites where this organic material has been preserved. However, the Late Bronze Age burial site of Cova des Pas in Minorca (1100–800 cal BC) has provided an extraordinary assemblage of well-preserved organic materials, including an important number of cordage remains. The aim of this paper is to present the results of the study of more than 600 cordage remains and to provide new insights into the production and use of cords in this period in Balearic Islands prehistory. Firstly, we have characterised the production process by analyzing the morphological and technical characteristics of the whole assemblage. According to the results, plant resource management, past environments, and cordage production in Balearic Bronze Age societies are discussed. Finally, the function of these cords is considered, according to the technology of production and the archaeological context. Despite the homogeneity of the sample, some variations regarding size, direction of twist and type of cords have been documented. Cords were used to tie the leather shrouds wrapping the dead bodies and to fix these mortuary packages to the wooden biers used to transport them to the burial cave.

Date: 2021
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/14614103.2018.1553329 (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:26:y:2021:i:2:p:122-130

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

DOI: 10.1080/14614103.2018.1553329

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 ().