Beyond the grave: Bone awls and territorial dynamics of Chalcolithic at Northeastern Portugal

Lorga de Dine cave, located in northeast Portugal, was the subject of several excavation campaigns during the 1960 s and 1980 s. Despite the recovery of a substantial archaeological record dating from the regional Chalcolithic to the Middle Bronze Age, a systematic study of the cave’s various occupations has yet to be published. The recovered assemblage includes a significant volume of human skeletal remains, indicating that the site functioned as a necropolis. Much of the associated material culture, including pottery, faunal remains, and a homogeneous set of bone awls, is interpreted as grave goods. This paper presents a detailed analysis of the bone tool assemblage, encompassing taxonomic and anatomical identification, morphological typology, and the reconstruction of the chaîne opératoire . Additionally, the first AMS radiocarbon determination for one of the bone tools is also presented. This result establishes the contemporaneity of the artifacts with previously dated human remains, confirming a coherent funerary context conceived during the third millennium BC. Together, these results situate Lorga de Dine awls within a broader Chalcolithic tradition of bone-tool production and deposition, while highlighting the underexplored role of functional osseous artefacts in Iberian funerary contexts.