The production and circulation of alpine jade axe-heads during the European neolithic: Ethnoarchaeological bases of their interpretation

Abstract

In 2003, the discovery of Neolithic working debris relating to the production of axe-heads of Alpine jade in the Mont Viso Massif, and the study of the European distribution of the products (between the Atlantic Ocean and the Black Sea) enabled us to propose a different picture of the Neolithic societies of the fifth and early fourth millennia B.C., in which socially significant "object-signs" could circulate over distances up to and exceeding 1800 km from the source (as the crow flies). The current interpretation of this phenomenon proposes that the value of these object-signs was based on the existence of specific ideal concepts relating to mythology and religious belief; these concepts constituted a key element in the exchanges that took place between elites in these profoundly inegalitarian societies. We must not forget, however, that these archaeological interpretations are informed by interpretations of contemporary activities (in other words, on ethnoarchaeological study), specifically by our observations, gathered over many years of fieldwork, of present-day makers and users of stone axe-heads in New Guinea. The authors’ scientific approach to interpreting the prehistoric material is based on three complementary and intertwined elements of research: the observation of archaeological "facts"; ethnoarchaeological study; and experimental archaeology. With regard to the prehistoric jade axe-heads, this complex scientific approach offers unquestionable advantages in terms of constructing an effective and plausible interpretation. It does, however, have gaps and weaknesses, and it is important to set these out here. The close relationship between the researchers and the people whom they study today-which involves certain kinds of mutual acculturation-makes the approach original, but also debatable; it stands in opposition to a theoretical ethnoarchaeology that is not always based on a consideration of the specific problems of, and applications to, archaeological material.