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The present study presents 48 items discovered in Bratei – Settlement no. 2, and which, for objective reasons, were not included in the monograph regarding inhabiting features of the 12th– 13th centuries, published in 2009. The items belong to various categories, such as prick spurs – nine items, knives with peduncle for handles – 11 items, nails – nine items, a door lock, a hinge or lock, three different iron parts of door whose function is less clear, two iron buckles – one rectangular, and the other in the form of the letter “ D”, an arrowhead with tube for hafting, an ellipsoidal iron strike-a-light, a scissor, an iron horseshoe, a base of pot with signs in relief, as well as seven iron items whose function could not be determined due to their preservation. The vast majority of these items were uncovered in features dating in the 12th– 13th centuries. Spurs are undoubtedly the category of artefacts with the highest chronological and even numerical relevance in the settlement of Bratei, occupying the first place, with the exception of ceramics. Typologically, the prick spurs are part of the generic type with pyramidal thorn, along with two variants. Although the present items do not differ from those found in other contemporary sites, they are by far the most important ones for a better understanding of the specificity of Bratei settlement. In the same time, they also indicate that the Bratei settlement is actually belonging to a horizon of discoveries distributed in south-eastern Transylvania around the middle of the 12th century until the first part of the next century. In order to easily identify the features in which the objects were found, we used the same abbreviations like the ones in the original site documentation : B = dwelling or household annex ; Gr = pit ; S = trench – followed by year(s) when those feature(s) were excavated.

The Mousterian level of the Doline of Cantalouette 2, with a mean age of 60 000 years, is remarkable for its richness, composition and recurrent structuring of activities in space (Bourguignon et al. 2008). It also delivers a range of lithic tools used in percussion tasks. In addition to a large range of knapping hammers (on quartz pebbles, flakes or flint cores), massive flint flakes have also been used with percussion gestures for working perishable materials such as animal carcasses and plants. We will focus our present article exclusively on this last type of use. The lithic production activities of this Late Mousterian mainly involved an algorithmic knapping system, based on recurrent unidirectional series and obtained according to sub-parallel fracture planes following one or more surfaces. Thick flakes, often with lateral asymmetry, were obtained from one or more circumscribed percussion planes (opposite or perpendicular), which are very rarely prepared. More rarely, a preferential Levallois knapping system, oriented towards export of the products, was also implemented. At some distance from the knapping station the main production was made almost exclusively for immediate use with or without a preparation of the active and handling parts by retouching, (Bourguignon et al. 2008). From this lithic production, it was made a selection of massive flakes easily handled with bare hands. These blanks often came from the first stages of the operating chain (cortical) and were used in percussion tasks. On the basis of a macroscopic selection of the - often unretouched - cutting edges with stigmas of crushing, micro-flaking or scarring, a functional analysis was carried out according to the analytical methodology developed by Semenov (1964). As the tools were very large items, we produced replicas of the working edges on acetate for additional analysis with microscope. Two types of percussion activities were registered, one focused on butchering tasks and the other on woodworking. For the butchering activities, these large, massive flakes were used as cleavers, chopping knives or butchering blades. On the edges of these tools, large scars are documented, resulting from striking the bones during the disarticulation or chopping of animal parts. Hard/semi-hard vegetal and woody plant materials were also worked by percussion gestures, mainly in order to slim them. Some very large lithic tools suggest a two-handed grip. In those cases, only one of the edges is used. On the smaller items, which can be held with one hand, the number of active parts is greater (at least two). These active parts are often denticulate (presenting a number of notches, retouched or not). The use-wear polishes concentrate on these areas. In some cases, these denticulations were prepared previously to use. For other tools, denticulations may also be the consequence of the impact on the material during the percussion tasks. These two registered activities will, therefore, be presented here, detailing and illustrating the stigmas and use-wear polishes relating to each of them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traumatic transfixed wounds of the limbs due to embedded foreign body are rare. Antebrachial segment involvement can lead to tissue damage, requiring specialized surgical treatment. Few studies have been reported, but surgical removal of the foreign body is indicated. We report the case of a 23-year-old patient, victim of physical violence, presenting with a transfixed wound due to the implantation of an atypical knife in the forearm. Clinical and radiographic tests showed significant muscle and neurovascular lesions. Surgical removal of the knife and lesion repair were performed. Surgical treatment of these traumas must be performed by an experienced surgical team to avoid the occurrence of iatrogenic lesions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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