Towards complexity in osseous raw material exploitation by the first anatomically modern humans in Europe: Aurignacian antler working

• Antler is the first osseous raw material showing a complex exploitation from the European Early Upper Palaeolithic.
• Bone working does not shows significant changes from the Mousterian to the Aurignacian.
• Antler is exclusively used to make hunting equipment during the Aurignacian.
• HS4 and CI climatic events may have resulted in the emergence of complex osseous exploitation in Europe.

This paper asses changes in the exploitation of osseous raw material (namely deer antler) during the early Upper Palaeolithic in Europe. Through examining four variables; raw material procurement, blank production, object manufacture and equipment maintenance, the author establishes that the complex and innovative working of osseous materials is restricted to antler working at around 40 Ka cal BP and are thus chronologically coincident with the emergence of the Early Aurignacian. Conversely, bone exploitation (known from the Lower Palaeolithic), shows a continuity through the Mousterian, the Proto-Aurignacian and the Early Aurignacian, invalidating the argument that osseous material exploitation represents a radical difference between the Middle and Upper Palaeolithic in Europe. By considering the technological and functional aspects of the Early Aurignacian antler equipment, including their chronological and palaeoclimatic (Heinrich event 4/Campanian Ignimbrite eruption) context, a hypothesis that may explain the incentives behind the emergence of complex osseous raw material exploitation in Europe during the late Pleistocene is proposed.