Forma vs. función en tipología prehistórica: el caso de las bramaderas óseas magdalenienses

Abstract

In 1930, an archaeological evidence worked on antler was recovered by D. Peyrony in the Upper Magdalenian level of Lalinde's cave (Dordogne), and was interpreted as a 'churinga' or bull-roarer. The shape of this holotype is fusiform, elongated and narrow, and with a hole in one end. Ever since then, the new evidences recovered (preferably on ribs of animals) in Western Europe (north of Iberian Peninsula, north Pyrenees and Dordogne) have been scarce. The author describes the bull-roarer or rhombus, and other types with related shapes (such as the ellipse and pendants). Besides, the author puts forward the difficulties of the classification of Paleolithic bone/antler (and, also, lithic) tools, which are based often on the convergence of formal characteristics and assumptions about the use of the tools.