Some weapons to take away: the spread of decorated projectile points across Magdalenian societies

Abstract

• This paper presents a consideration on the spread of decorated weapon tips across Magdalenian societies. Based on a comprehensive review of the ten types of decorations identified on weapon tips from south-western France, the comparative analysis of their distribution shows their value to document both short and long distances relationships, depending on the types of decorated weapons. The distribution maps indeed highlight widespread cultural markers, such as the points and half-round rods with protuberances, coexisting with local and interregional types, the diffusion areas of which partly overlap. Some types with only limited distribution suggest local identities, especially in the cases of the points and half-round rods decorated with spirals and circles from the western Pyrenean Middle Magdalenian and the points and large bevelled rods with macrocephalic horses or fish-shaped patterns from the Upper Magdalenian of Dordogne. While the Pyrenean area retains the main sets for the decorated weapons from the Middle Magdalenian and therefore appears to have had a significant influence during this period, the decorated weapons from the Upper Magdalenian seem to originate from different areas. They tend to be essentially concentrated in different areas (Capra in frontal view along the Cantabrian coast, macrocephalic horses and fish-shaped patterns in Dordogne), supporting higher regional disparities. Furthermore, reduced evidence for links with the Cantabrian coast during the Upper Magdalenian also supports an evolution of the exchange networks in the course of the Magdalenian.