Ornamented antler points to long-distance trade between Mesolithic communities

Ornamented antler found in Gołębiewo, central Poland, subjected to DNA and stable isotope analyses, revealed its origin as coming from between northern Scandinavia and north-western Russia, indicating it might have travelled from North Karelia to Central Poland during Mesolithic Era.

The ornamented antler (by Grzegorz Osipowicz, Henryk Witas, Aleksandra Lisowska-Gaczorek, Laurie Reitsema, Krzysztof Szostek, Tomasz Płoszaj, Justyna Kuriga, Daniel Makowiecki, Krystyna Jędrychowska-Dańska, Beata Cienkosz-Stepańczak)

The researchers participating in the study of the artefact suggest that the results are possible evidence for the flow of goods between hunter-gatherer groups at a large distance, and provides new insight into how ideas and items were exchanged in Mesolithic communities within North Eastern Europe. Grzegorz Osipowicz, who led the study, states that the route taken for transporting the artefact made of reindeer antler of the Rangifer tarandus species from nearby North Karelia to Central Poland, and the motive for transporting it, remain impossible to determine conclusively, yet the obtained results are the first direct evidence for the flow of goods between hunter-gatherer groups in the Early Holocene at such a great distance.

(after EurekAlert!, Grzegorz Osipowicz, Henryk Witas, Aleksandra Lisowska-Gaczorek, Laurie Reitsema, Krzysztof Szostek, Tomasz Płoszaj, Justyna Kuriga, Daniel Makowiecki, Krystyna Jędrychowska-Dańska, Beata Cienkosz-Stepańczak & Live Science)

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