Current Studies on Archaeological Worked Bone Heritage

Dear Colleagues,

A growing number of differently oriented studies have focused on historical and prehistoric artefacts made of osseous raw materials in recent years. They address very different research problems. Methodological work is constantly being carried out, aiming to develop an optimal method for the microscopic examination of bone products and precise classification of the technological and functional traces identified on them. Microscopic analysis is widely used for conducting technological research, allowing for the reconstruction of the chaîne opératoire of various types of artefacts from the raw materials in question. Complicated functional (use-wear) research is also carried out to interpret ancient bone tools' functions. A complementary aspect of traceological research is the identification of residues on bone tools, which can provide clues as to how various types of organic and inorganic raw materials were processed. These analyses are now carried out using not only stereo optical and metallographic microscopes but increasingly also more advanced imaging techniques, such as scanning electron microscopy (SEM), confocal microscopy, microcomputed tomography (micro-CT), optical coherence tomography (OCT), etc. This Special Issue will collect the latest research in all mentioned areas and determine the current state of the art on prehistoric and historical bone products and research prospects for the near future.

Proposed abstracts can be submitted to this Special Issue on the following topics:

1. New methods and research tools in studies of bone artefacts;
2. Technological and functional studies on collections of prehistoric and historical bone products;
3. Taphonomy in the study of ancient bone industries;
4. Residues analysis in the studies of osseous artefacts.

Proposals are not restricted by chronology or geographical location.

Dr. Grzegorz Osipowicz
Dr. Justyna Orlowska
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Heritage is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.