Fig 1.
Location of Dzudzuana, Satsurblia and other Imeretian sites mentioned in the text.
Main map provided by Wikimedia Commons under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International (author Giorgi Balakhadze), original copyright 2018. Background map after Stone, T.A., and P. Schlesinger. 2003. RLC Vegetative Cover of the Former Soviet Union, 1990. ORNL DAAC, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA. This dataset is openly shared, without restriction, in accordance with the NASA Data and Information Policy.
Fig 2.
Spatial distribution and stratigraphic location of pendants from Dzudzuana and Satsurblia.
On the left, spatial distribution (top) and stratigraphic location (bottom) of pendants from Dzudzuana Cave (red deer canines = yellow circles; red deer incisor = yellow triangle; caprid incisor = magenta triangle; bone pendants = blue square) plotted over the West–East sections. On the right, the Satsurblia Cave pendants spatial distribution.
Fig 3.
Bone tools examples from Dzudzuana (left) and Satsurblia (right). Projectile points (A); awls (B); ‘intermediate pieces’ (chisels) (C); notched and incised bone fragments from Dzudzuana (D); bone needle from Satsurblia and debitage waste linked with needle production (E). Specimens housed at the prehistory storage facilities of the Georgian State Museum (Tbilisi, Georgia). Photos by J.-M. Tejero.
Table 1.
Pendants from Dzudzuana and Satsurblia caves.
Table 2.
Red deer (Cervus elaphus) vestigial canines pendants morphometry (see d’Errico and Vanhaeren 2002).
Fig 4.
Red deer vestigial canines (A); ungulate incisors (B); bone pendants (C). The specimens are housed at the prehistory storage facilities of the Georgian State Museum (Tbilisi, Georgia). Specimens housed at the prehistory storage facilities of the Georgian State Museum (Tbilisi, Georgia). Photos by J.-M. Tejero.
Fig 5.
Pendants from Satsurblia cave.
Red deer vestigial canines (A); ungulate incisors (B); bone pendants (C). Photos by J.-M. Tejero.
Table 3.
Detailed description of the pendants attaching system.
Table 4.
Tooth removal marks, use-wear marks, functional breakages and ocher stains.
Fig 6.
Detailed stereo-microscopy photographs of pendants.
Oblique incisions likely produced to remove the teeth from the alveolar cavity (A, B); Longitudinal scraping on the surface of the roots before perforation (C, D); circular marks on the hole resulting from a rotating action to perforate the teeth (E); transversal segmentation of the root by sawing and peripheral gouging by scraping (F); Longitudinal incisions marks resulting from the perforation by scraping (G); circular perforations modified by use-wear resulting in a polish lobe of the hole (G–K); flint burin from layer B/III of Satsurblia bearing ochre remains and compatibility between its distal (active) part and the scraped and perforated surface of a teeth from the same layer (L, M); ochre stains on the holes (H, J, P); red deer vestigial canine from Satsurblia decorated with transversal notches on its root (K); functional breakages of the perforations (N–P). All scales = 1 mm. Magnifications 7-16x. Photos by J.-M. Tejero.
Fig 7.
Morphometric comparison of pendants.
Morphometrics of the pendants show the choice of a regular size and similar shape of both teeth and bone pendants.
Fig 8.
Map of the Caucasus with UP sites and distribution of raw material of the pendants.
Dzudzuana, Satsurblia, Mezmaiskaya (external rings), and faunal remains (internal rings). Faunal data after: [2, 11, 17–19, 27, 28]. Background map after Stone, T.A., and P. Schlesinger. 2003. RLC Vegetative Cover of the Former Soviet Union, 1990. ORNL DAAC, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA. This dataset is openly shared, without restriction, in accordance with the NASA Data and Information Policy.