MP Gallery - Markings, Signs, Graphemes; v) suard150cremades1

Examples of iterative stroke marks.

• l'Abri Suard, La Chaise-de-Vauthon, Charente, France, Mousterian, c. 150,000 BP; 15 pieces of bone of horse and reindeer, incised with iterative stroke marks, mostly parallel, some paired (Debénath and Duport 1971; Cremades 1996)

Comment (James Harrod): These incised objects seem to me to be of mixed types, appearing to be categorizable as Type A, C and/or D possibly, while some incisions appear as possibly use-wear, when compared to use-wear on bones from Cueva Morin as illustrated in Freeman, L. G. 1978. Mousterian worked bone from Cueva Morin (Santander, Spain): A preliminary description. In Leslie G. Freeman (ed.), Views of the Past: Essays in old world prehistory and palaeoanthropology. The Hague: Mouton. Objects # 2 (with its paired stroke marks) and #4 seem best candidates for Type A iterative stroke marks.

More incised objects from l'Abri Suard, see next image.

Drawings © M. Crémades. Crémades, M., Laville, H., Sirakov, N. and J. K. Kozlowski. 1996. Une pierre gravee de 50,000 ans B.P. dans les Balkans. Paleo 7:201-209: Figure 1.