Against the strain - a diachronic perspective on prehistoric European and Near Eastern protective/symbolic archery equipment

Abstract

This contribution reviews selected bone and stone plaques with double or multiple opposite perforations from Pre-Pottery Neolithic Near Eastern contexts in the light of them having possibly served as symbolic or protective archery equipment. The presence of perforated plaques from Later Neolithic Europe is a well-attested phenomenon in funeral contexts and is commonly labelled as bracers or wrist-guards. With their actual practical purpose of efficiently preventing the forearm from the slashing of a bowstring being probably of subordinate importance, there seems to be a consensus that they were, if not protective, then symbolic adornments in connection with hunting as being not only a profane, food-acquiring routine but simultaneously a ritually loaded, status-enhancing endeavor. The same is assumed for specific "plaques" from much earlier post-Pleistocene contexts in Upper Mesopotamia, which might have served an identical purpose in the frame of cultural synchronisms.