The engraved stone pendant from Poiana Ciresului-Piatra Neamt, Romania. New contributions to the understanding of symbolic behavior in Gravettian

The 2013 archaeological excavation campaign carried out at Poiana Cireşului-Piatra Neamţ Paleolithic site (Neamţ County, North-Eastern Romania) led to the discovery, in the Gravettian I layer, of the first engraved stone pendant found in this settlement, in an area where such discoveries are very rare. The Gravettian I layer provided the largest number of art objects and tools made of hard animal materials from the Romanian Upper Paleolithic. Besides a technological analysis of the pendant, a stylistic analysis of the engravings has also been provided, in order to identify similarities to other stone pendants. It seems that for the Paleolithic contexts of Eurasia, the discovery of such stone pendants, engraved on both sides is very rare, especially for Gravettian. Therefore, the specimen found at Poiana Cireşului is even more interesting, since it shows several original peculiarities. The new personal ornaments discovered in the Gravettian sites of South-Eastern Europe can provide important information on the ethno-cultural features of the Paleolithic communities of this region.