Amber imitation? Two unusual cases of Pinus resin-coated beads in Iberian Late Prehistory (3rd and 2nd millennia BC)

Carlos P Odriozola; José Ángel Garrido Cordero; Joan Daura; Montserrat Sanz; José María Martínez-Blanes; Miguel Ángel Avilés

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0215469

Amber imitation? Two unusual cases of Pinus resin-coated beads in Iberian Late Prehistory (3rd and 2nd millennia BC)

PLoS One. 2019 May 3;14(5):e0215469. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0215469. eCollection 2019.

Authors

Carlos P Odriozola¹, José Ángel Garrido Cordero¹, Joan Daura², Montserrat Sanz², José María Martínez-Blanes³, Miguel Ángel Avilés³

Affiliations

¹ Departamento de Prehistoria y Arqueología, Universidad de Sevilla, C/ María de Padilla S/N, Sevilla, Spain.
² Grup de Recerca del Quaternari (GRQ-SERP), Departament d'Història i Arqueologia, Universitat de Barcelona, Carrer Montalegre, 6, Barcelona, Spain.
³ Instituto de Ciencia de Materiales de Sevilla, Centro mixto CSIC-Universidad de Sevilla, Sevilla, Spain.

Abstract

A group of beads from the artificial cave of La Molina (Lora de Estepa, Sevilla) and Cova del Gegant (Sitges, Barcelona) were made from a biogenic raw material and intentionally covered by a layer of resin. This is the first time this type of treatment has been documented on elements of adornment in the Late Prehistory of the Iberian Peninsula. The composition and nature of the coatings are analysed and the symbolic role of such alterations and imitations of prehistoric adornments is discussed.

Publication types

Historical Article
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Amber / history*
Archaeology
Geological Phenomena
History, Ancient
Pinus / ultrastructure*
Spain
Spectrophotometry, Infrared
X-Ray Diffraction

Substances

Amber

Grants and funding

This research was funded by the MINECO/AEI/FEDER -EU under contract HAR2012-34620 and HAR2017-83474-P. José Ángel Garrido Cordero acknowledges the University of Seville for a PhD grant under the V Plan Propio de Investigación de la Universidad de Sevilla. Montserrat Sanz acknowledges the program Juan de la Cierva for a postdoctoral grant (FJCI-2014-21386). Daura holds a postdoctoral grant (SFRH/BPD/ 100507/2014‏) from the Portuguese Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia using funding from the FSE/POPH.