I believe that the above approach of close observation and analysis, conceived in terms of a version of Leroi-Gourhan's chaîne opératoire expanded far beyond simple production events to include broader social and cultural contexts in which those events occur, serves as a substantial foundation for accessing domains of thought and action in the distant past. In particular, a broad technological perspective, when combined with indications of archaeological context and the prudent and restricted use of relevant ethnographic analogues leads us to consider new interpretive frameworks. This framework, I believe, has the merit of situating Aurignacian beads and Gravettian/Epigravettian female sculptures, not in some broad, culturally mandated system of bodily adornment, erotic or reproductive iconography, but in culturally appropriate but very personal and individual practices by which real people negotiated the normal challenges (physical, social and spiritual) of everyday life.
To return to the original issue of meaning, I wish to re-emphasize the multidimensional nature of constructed and construed meanings, meanings viewed here not so much as ideas but as highly contextualized productions, performances, choices and skills. I hope that I have made obvious the futility of maintaining "art" and "technology" as distinct categories of analysis.