8500-year-old Late Mesolithic garment embroidery from Vlasac (Serbia): Technological, use-wear and residue analyses

This paper presents results of contextual, technological, use-wear and residue analyses of body ornaments from two Late Mesolithic burials recently excavated at the site of Vlasac in the Danube Gorges of the central Balkans. Common to both burials are ornaments made from modified and unmodified carp (Cyprinidae sp.) pharyngeal ‘teeth’ along with Cyclope neritea marine gastropods. Experimental and low and high magnification use-wear approaches have been employed in reconstructing the way these ornaments were made and used. The precise contextual distribution of these ornaments has been recorded for the first time. The two examined burials exhibit a number of similarities, particularly in the way ornaments were placed in relation to the body. Both burials are also contemporaneous, dated to the mid-7th millennium BC. Implications of these findings for Mesolithic foragers' corporeal symbolism, group identity and regional and long-distance acquisition networks are briefly examined.

► Carp pharyngeal teeth and Cyclope neritea shells used to embroider cloths in Mesolithic Vlasac.
► Red ochre used with tendon strings that fastened carp ornaments to clothing.
► C. neritea shells were intentionally modified to facilitate fastening to clothing.
► A Mesolithic adult and a child buried with ornaments exhibit the same embroidery on clothing.
► Developed use-wear traces on ornaments from burials indicate their prolonged use.