Mesolithic engraved bone pins: the art of fashion at Téviec (Morbihan, France)

International audienceThe revisiting of the Téviec bone material by means of technological analysis, including taphonomy and usewear,enabled us to separate bone implements from the rest of the osseous material discovered in Mesolithicburials at this site. As a result, we find that pointed pieces made from animal bones were associated with thedeceased regardless of their age or gender. Except for five such pieces recognized by the excavators, thepoints or awls were all engraved (up to 14 to date). Engravings in the form of a series of notches on the pointare interpreted as decorative. It turns out that such objects were intended for a functional purpose: to actas a safety pin for holding garments together on the body. A pairing of such points has even been attestedalong with other objects that constituted personal ornaments of some children. This suggests that wearingbone pins was common across age groups and was an expression of fashion or could act as a group identitymarker at the end of the sixth millennium cal BC. In this regard, the bone technology supports a socio-culturalregionalism present in Brittany at the end of the Mesolithic