{"id":"DEBRUGE1908-001","label":"Grotte des Ours thin bone blade","people_or_site":"Grotte des Ours (Ghar-Zahar), north of Constantine","country_current":"Algeria","historic_region":"Constantine massif above the Rhumel valley, northeastern Algeria; Neolithic","macroregion":"Africa / North Africa","local_name":"Ghar-Zahar","source_term":"","source_language":"French","object_description":"Thin blade of bone, 18 cm long, 2 cm wide at the broad end narrowing to 8 mm, and barely 2 mm thick; scraped and polished on both faces and thinned all round, with a hole drilled from both sides at the broad end. Found in two pieces and rejoined.","function_summary":"Not recorded.","attestation_type":"archaeological_find","source_key":"debruge1908_grotte_des_ours_fig26","source_type":"archaeological_report","source_url":"https://ufdcimages.uflib.ufl.edu/UF/00/07/26/68/00024/recueildesnotice42cons.pdf","page_or_plate":"Debruge 1908, pp. 140–141, fig. 26","map_confidence":"low_medium","plot_status":"candidate_only","coordinate_basis":"Approximate: Debruge 1908 p. 118 places the cave on the rock ridge north of Constantine, near the second tunnel of the Constantine–Philippeville railway, overlooking the Rhumel valley; point set a few kilometres north of the city centre, uncertainty about 3 km.","jade_complex_role":"","blurb":"People around Constantine called it Ghar-Zahar, the cave that rumbles, for the echo inside. When A. Debruge dug there in 1908 he renamed it the Grotte des Ours, after the many bear bones in its floor. Ruined dolmens stood on the plateau above, and among the Neolithic pottery, flint and polished bone inside lay this blade, broken in two, its halves some way apart and stained differently by the soils that held them. Fitted back together it runs eighteen centimetres. Both faces were scraped and polished and the edges thinned all round to barely two millimetres; a hole drilled from both sides pierces the broad end, and the narrow half curves away to a rounded tip.","pull_quote":"","pull_quote_translation":"","pull_quote_cite":"","term_gloss":"Ghar-Zahar: the cave's local Arabic name, which Debruge renders 'grotte qui gronde', 'the cave that rumbles', for its echo.","cls":"unknown","class_label":"Function not recorded","color":"#6B7884","is_candidate":true,"flags":[],"f_jade_complex":false,"f_women_taboo":false,"f_women_special":false,"f_snake":false,"f_archaeology":true,"archaeology_kind":"object","date_display":"Undated","date_qualification":"Neolithic attribution; layer and age unknown.","date_basis":"undated","date_confidence":"low","date_citation":"debruge1908_grotte_des_ours_fig26, Debruge 1908 pp. 124–125, 139–141; Vaufrey 1934/35 p. 18","sources":[{"citation":"A. Debruge, 'La Grotte des Ours. Ghar-Zahar (grotte qui gronde), ainsi appelée par les Arabes à Constantine (Algérie)', Recueil des Notices et Mémoires de la Société Archéologique de la Province de Constantine 42 (1908): 117–159, fig. 26","url":"https://ufdcimages.uflib.ufl.edu/UF/00/07/26/68/00024/recueildesnotice42cons.pdf"}],"source_citations":"A. Debruge, 'La Grotte des Ours. Ghar-Zahar (grotte qui gronde), ainsi appelée par les Arabes à Constantine (Algérie)', Recueil des Notices et Mémoires de la Société Archéologique de la Province de Constantine 42 (1908): 117–159, fig. 26","source_display":"A. Debruge, 'La Grotte des Ours. Ghar-Zahar (grotte qui gronde), ainsi appelée par les Arabes à Constantine (Algérie)', Recueil des Notices et Mémoires de la Société Archéologique de la Province de Constantine 42 (1908): 117–159, fig. 26","date_citation_display":"Debruge 1908 pp. 124–125, 139–141; Vaufrey 1934/35 p. 18","object_display":"Thin blade of bone, 18 cm long, 2 cm wide at the broad end narrowing to 8 mm, and barely 2 mm thick; scraped and polished on both faces and thinned all round, with a hole drilled from both sides at the broad end. Found in two pieces and rejoined.","function_display":"Not recorded.","confidence_display":"low to medium","attestation_label":"archaeological find","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"grotte des","display_name":"Grotte des Ours thin bone blade","image":{"full":"assets/objects/DEBRUGE1908-001_ours-141.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/DEBRUGE1908-001_ours-141_thumb.jpg","alt":"Engraved illustration of a long thin bone blade, broad at the top with a round drilled hole, narrowing and curving slightly to a rounded tip at the bottom.","credit":"A. Debruge, Recueil des Notices et Mémoires de la Société Archéologique de la Province de Constantine 42 (1908), fig. 26","source_page":"https://ufdcimages.uflib.ufl.edu/UF/00/07/26/68/00024/recueildesnotice42cons.pdf","rehosted":true,"representative":false,"caption":"The rejoined Grotte des Ours bone blade, with its hole at the broad top end (Debruge 1908, fig. 26)."},"slug":"debruge1908-001-grotte-des-ours-ghar-zahar-north-of-constantine"}