Reports of the Laboratory of ancient technologies

9-22

Authors: Peskov Sergey A. , Klementev Alexey M. , Molchanov Dmitry N. , Sterkhova Inga V. , Molchanov Grigory N.

This paper presents the preliminary results of studies of the Paleolithic site “Vesna”, which was observed in 2017 in the western part of Kuda village, situated in Irkutsk region. The site is determined by the position on the slope surface of the northern, north-eastern exposure with absolute marks 490–492 m, facing the wide valley of the Kuda river, and is tied to the headboard of the starboard decay. The archaeological remains recorded in solifluction dark brown loam (lower Sartan solifluction), with the presence of humus layers of the ancients (the Karga?) soils. As the main raw material for the lithic-production it was used an argillite, also there are few fine quartzite artifacts. The collection of artifacts includes flat-front cores for the blade production, blades, flake-blades, flakes, convergent side-scraper, retouched blade. The raw material composition and morphology of the industry have some similarities with the assemblages of the sites Arembovsky, Aksenova and Shchapova I. Faunal complex of site is represented by the fragments of bones of woolly rhinoceros, primeval bison and fossil horse. Cultural remains age could be preliminary defined from lower Sartan to Karga time (25–30 000 years BP).

40-53

Authors: Gurulev Dmitry A.

Stone grinded knives are a peculiar group of multicultural tools of the southern part of Middle Siberia in Holocene. There are two stable types among pieces. The first type consists of knives with one longitudinal working edge, which was widely spread in the Neolithic and Paleometal period. The second one is represented by knives with a double triangular working edge, which generally connected with the Kitoi cultural complex of the Early Neolithic. Currently on the territory of the Northern Angara region only knives of the first type were found. The characteristics and chronology of the knives are generally consistent with the materials of adjacent regions. The issue of variability and internal chronology of the northern Angara tools is currently open due to the small number of narrow interval age dates. Grinded knives have different morphometric characteristics with the stability of the general configuration, which is due, apparently, to functional reasons. Based on the available data, it can be assumed that the tools were used, first of all, for treatment of wood and other solid organic materials. The phenomenon of long life of grinded knives is interesting in terms of researching of the issues of sustainability of economic models and cultural traditions of the ancient population of Siberia.