scholarly journals Mesolithic monument Novaya Kazanka 1 in the Northern Caspian region (materials of 2005)

2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 79-85
Author(s):  
Olga Anatoljevna Artukhova ◽  
Talgat Basarbaevich Mamirov ◽  
Yerlan Yersainovich Klyshev
Keyword(s):  
Raw Materials ◽  
Sand Dunes ◽  
Caspian Region ◽  
Stone Age ◽  
Cultural Layer ◽  
Stone Artifacts ◽  
Siliceous Rock ◽  
Western Shore

This paper provides information about exploring of the Stone Age at the site Novaya Kazanka 1 in sand dunes on the western shore of Lake Soraidyn by employees of Institute of Archeology named after A.Kh. Margulan. They worked on the monument in 2003 and 2005. 8 accumulations of stone artifacts were allocated on the monument. The pits laid at the site showed the absence of the buried cultural layer. Stone artifacts were made mainly of two types of raw materials - siliceous rock and quartzite sandstone. The typological description of the stone collection of accumulations at the Novaya Kazanka 1 site indicates their chronological diversity ranging from purely Mesolithic complexes to mixed Meso-Neolithic ones. The technique of primary splitting is represented by unit nuclei and fragments of small dimensions. The tools are represented by scrapers, mostly end-plates on fragments of plates, lamellar flakes, plates and fragments of retouched plates, geometric microliths (segments, trapeziums, and triangles) and others. The stone inventory of the accumulations at the Novaya Kazanka 1 site does not contradict the conclusions about the correlation of the monuments near Lake Soraidyn with the monuments of the Istai group of the Seroglazov culture, which is expressed both in raw materials preferences and in the technique of primary splitting, as well as in the collection of stone implements.

scholarly journals The site Vavilino 1 on the right bank of the Derkul River in Western Kazakhstan (materials of 2018)

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 166-173
Author(s):  
Talgat Basarbaevich Mamirov
Keyword(s):  
Anthropogenic Activities ◽  
Past Century ◽  
Stone Age ◽  
Cultural Layer ◽  
Stone Artifacts ◽  
The Past ◽  
Western Kazakhstan ◽  
The Right ◽  
Bone Remains ◽  
Excavation Area

The paper is devoted to preliminary data from a study of the Vavilino 1 site in Western Kazakhstan. The monument was first opened by N.M. Malov in 1986, later he picked artifacts from the surface in 1988. In 1991 N.L. Morgunova carried out excavations on the site, which showed the importance of this monument study to understand the Neolithic Volga-Ural interfluve. The monument is located on the right bank of the Derkul River and is currently classified as an emergency. In 2018, employees of the Institute of Archeology named after A.Kh. Margulan in the framework of the Stone Age study in Western Kazakhstan started to work on the monuments of Yeshkitau, Derkul 1 and Vavilino 1. At the Vavilino 1 site a small excavation area - 16 square meters was made, more than a thousand stone artifacts were received; fragments of ceramics and bone remains of animals were poorly diagnosed. Excavations have shown the presence of a 15-20 cm thick cultural layer belonging to the Neolithic time. The upper layer of the monument with a capacity of up to 30 cm was destroyed by anthropogenic activities in the past century. The material from the cultural layer is not numerous; tip scrapers, fragments of plates with retouching, geometrical microliths, prismatic nucleus for plates, etc. are typologically distinguished.

scholarly journals HOARDS OF THE STONE AGE AS ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOURCES

2021 ◽  
pp. 5-14
Author(s):  
Yu. B. Serikov ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Information Content ◽  
Raw Materials ◽  
Archaeological Site ◽  
Information Capacity ◽  
Stone Age ◽  
Cultural Layer ◽  
Mineral Raw Materials

Hoards are a rare and informative type of archaeological sources. Different definitions of hoards are given in dictionaries and in special literature: “hoards-treasures”, “hoards of the caster”, “trading hoards”, “household hoards”, “cult hoards”, “sacrificial hoards”, “votive hoards”, “ceremonial-votive hoards”, “hoards-offerings”, “production hoards”, “hoards of raw materials”, “hoards of the master”, “hoards-satchel sets”, etc. Hoards are often found by accident and usually not by archaeologists. At the same time, the hoard is not always passed to specialists in full. A finder of the hoard can remove one or more items from it or, on the contrary, add items lying nearby to the hoard. All these factors reduce the degree of information content of hoards found by random people. The location of the hoard in relation to the relief and borders of the archaeological site is not always fixed. Also, the mineral raw materials of products from the hoard are not always described. Some researchers do not provide images of all the finds from the hoard in their publications and do not indicate the metric indicators of the items in the hoard. Quite often, any accumulation of finds on the site is considered as a hoard without additional arguments. But the accumulation of objects in the cultural layer of sites may be not a hoard, but a production set at a home workshop. It is proposed to refer to the actual hoards, first of all, the hoards found outside the cultural layer of settlements (sites). Hoards are also tightly packed products, which indicates that they were in some kind of container. Accumulations of products buried in a hole and covered with a stone or slab can also be called hoards. In other cases of the accumulation of items interpreted by the author as a hoard, the word “hoard” must be taken in quotation marks. Failure to comply with special requirements for the study and publication of hoards reduces the information capacity of hoards as archaeological sources.

scholarly journals BRIEF RESULTS OF WORKS ON THE SITE VAVILINO 1 IN 2020

THE BULLETIN ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (387) ◽  
pp. 319-323
Author(s):  
Т. B. Mamiror ◽  
◽  
S. R. Kuandyk ◽  
◽  
◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Anthropogenic Impact ◽  
Raw Materials ◽  
Volga Region ◽  
Stone Age ◽  
Cultural Layer ◽  
Early Neolithic ◽  
Left Edge ◽  
Secondary Processing ◽  
Siliceous Rocks ◽  
Neolithic Monuments

he article provides brief information about the results of the field works in 2020 at the stratified Stone Age site in Western Kazakhstan - Vavilino 1. The sites of the Stone Age, with a preserved cultural layer, are very rare for the territory of Kazakhstan, and in particular for the studied region. The works of 2018 and 2019 showed the destruction of the upper cultural layer of the site as a result of anthropogenic impact, the excavation in 2020 was expanded by another 12 sq. m eastward, were obtained more than four hundred stone artifacts, fragments of ceramics and animal bones. The first horizon up to 25 (30) cm thick was saturated with eluvium and gaize; artifacts of yellowish-gray quartzitic sandstone, siliceous raw materials of dark gray and light gray shades, single fragmentary bone remains and ceramics were found in the layer. The main percentage of artifacts in the first horizon is represented from quartzite sandstone - 173 specimens. (94%). The tool kit (39 pieces) is represented by the following items: scrapers on flakes and blades (9 pieces), mainly of end types (7 pieces). Fragments of blades with secondary processing along the edges are representative (14 pieces), or 34% of tools. Highlighted in a set are an burin on straight retouched truncation, reamers on a plates and flakes (3 pieces). A single chisel reshaped from a fragment of a core, notched tools on blades and a technical chip (3 pieces), a massive pebble side-scraper, a tool with a spike, chips with retouch, and fragments of tools (5 pieces). Artifacts from siliceous rocks are few in number - 11 specimens (6%), of which 5 tools, all of them endscrapers. On one, measuring 14.3x16.0x3.9 mm, the left edge was retouched with back retouch. The second horizon, 25 (30) cm to 60 (70) cm thick, includes 238 artifacts, 211 specimens from quartzite sandstone (88.6%) and 27 specimens (11.4%) from siliceous rocks. The technique of primary reduction from quartzite sandstone is represented by a double-sided core for removing short spalls, technical spalls, and ribbed plates. The tool kit (37 pieces) is represented by the following items: two end-scrapers on a plate, one end-scraper on a flake, and one side scraper on a flake; fragments of plates with retouch (8 pieces); an angular cutter, a drill on a fragment of a plate, two cutting tools, the first knife with a natural backing, the second with a serrated blade; scrapers on a flake (2 pieces); a chopping tool, the rest are whole flakes and their fragments with secondary processing. From siliceous rock, 10 tools, three end-scrapers, a round scraper on a flake, a chisel, fragments of plates and flakes with secondary processing along the edges were found. Despite the accident rate of the site and the destruction of most of the cultural layer by anthropogenic impact, the study of the site is of great importance for understanding the cultural processes in the Neolithic-Eneolithic era in the Volga-Ural interfluve. The stratigraphy of the excavation showed that the areas in the east and south are the most destroyed. However, in the southern direction, despite the destroyed upper layer, the thickness of the cultural layer increases to 70 cm, which is of interest for increasing the excavation area in the southern, as well as the western part of the site, which is less affected by economic activity. At the site, a bone fragment was used to obtain the first radiocarbon date 7483 ± 23 BP (Hela-4507) (cal 6355- 6335 BC), which indicates the early Neolithic age of the object. Work on Vavilino 1 has just begun, a small stone and ceramic inventory has been obtained, which has similar features to the Neolithic monuments of the Steppe Volga region (Algai, Irrigated 1), the date obtained includes this monument in the circle of the Early Neolithic monuments of the Steppe Volga region, however, additional dating is required and obtaining more massive material, which can solve to some extent the issues of the origin and cultural features of the Early Neolithic in the Volga-Ural interfluve. The article was prepared with the financial support of the KN MES RK (IRN of the project AR05134087 "Stone Age of the North-Eastern Caspian Region").

scholarly journals The question of the Paleolithic of Mangystau (Levallois-Achel or Mikok?)

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 180-188
Author(s):  
Olga A. Artukhova ◽  
Talgat B. Mamirov
Keyword(s):  
Raw Materials ◽  
Northern Coast ◽  
Stone Age ◽  
Office Work ◽  
Stone Artifacts ◽  
Untimely Death ◽  
The Third ◽  
Thick Layers

The paper presents technical and typological characteristics of stone artifacts, which were collected on the III above-floodplain terrace of the Shakhpakatasai valley on the northern coast of the Mangystau peninsula, south of Sarytash Bay, in the area of the underground mosque Shakpakata. It was these artifacts that served as the basis for A.G. Medoevs identification of Levallois-Achel cultures 1 and 2. These concepts are widely used in generalizing works on the Paleolithic of Kazakhstan, although the materials remained unprocessed and unpublished due to the untimely death of the researcher. In 20182020 the authors conducted field and office work to localize collection points of 19661969, to process and describe collections, and attempted to interpret them. The artifacts lay on the surface of the third above-floodplain terrace of the through-valley Shakhpakatasai uncovered and unredeposited. In the sides of the valley thick layers of flint nodules are exposed, which served as an inexhaustible source of raw materials for making tools at different stages of the Stone Age. According to the degree of surface deflation the artifacts are subdivided into three series. Of particular interest are moderately deflated artifacts, including a significant number of bifaces and bifacial tools, which makes it possible to raise the question of including the early series of artifacts from Shakpakata workshop sites in the framework of the Eastern Micoquien.

scholarly journals Materials of the early Neolithic of the Yarlukovskaya Protoka site (point 222) on the Upper Don

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 220-229
Author(s):  
Roman Viktorovich Smolyaninov ◽  
Aleksey Aleksandrovich Kulichkov ◽  
Elizaveta Sergeevna Yurkina
Keyword(s):  
Silty Clay ◽  
Mixed Complex ◽  
Cultural Layer ◽  
Early Neolithic ◽  
Stone Artifacts ◽  
Left Tributary ◽  
Clay Ceramics ◽  
Almost All ◽  
Neolithic Cultures

This paper analyzes materials located in the floodplain of the Matyra River (left tributary of the Voronezh River) of the Yarlukovskaya Protoka (point 222) in the Gryazinsky District of the Lipetsk Region. It was investigated in 1963, 1964, 1967 and 1968 by Vsevolod Levenok. The materials of three early Neolithic cultures of VI Millennium BC were revealed here. The materials of the Yelshanskaya culture are represented by corollas and bottoms of 12 vessels. Almost all dishes, except one bottom and several walls, have no ornament, with the exception of one or two rows of conical pit. All ceramics are well smoothed. Ceramics were made from silty clay. The location of materials in the cultural layer confirms the earlier occurrence of the Yelshanskaya culture ceramics. The ceramics of the Karamyshevo culture is represented by fragments from three vessels. The dishes are predominantly decorated with small oval pricks composed in horizontal and vertical rows. Ceramics were made from silty clay. Ceramics of the Srednedonskaya culture are represented by corollas and rounded bottoms of 15 vessels. It is decorated with triangular prick or small comb prints. Ceramics were made from silty clay. At Yarlukovskaya Protoka site 304 stone artifacts were discovered, mainly of flint. This industry could be described as flake-blade technique. The monument is a mixed complex - stratigraphic and planigraphic readable observations of stone inventory location could not be done.

scholarly journals Raw material optimization and stone tool engineering in the Early Stone Age of Olduvai Gorge (Tanzania)

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (162) ◽  
pp. 20190377 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alastair Key ◽  
Tomos Proffitt ◽  
Ignacio de la Torre
Keyword(s):  
Functional Performance ◽  
Material Selection ◽  
Raw Materials ◽  
Cutting Tools ◽  
Raw Material ◽  
Stone Tool ◽  
Olduvai Gorge ◽  
Stone Age ◽  
Material Optimization ◽  
Early Stone Age

For more than 1.8 million years hominins at Olduvai Gorge were faced with a choice: whether to use lavas, quartzite or chert to produce stone tools. All are available locally and all are suitable for stone tool production. Using controlled cutting tests and fracture mechanics theory we examine raw material selection decisions throughout Olduvai's Early Stone Age. We quantify the force, work and material deformation required by each stone type when cutting, before using these data to compare edge sharpness and durability. Significant differences are identified, confirming performance to depend on raw material choice. When combined with artefact data, we demonstrate that Early Stone Age hominins optimized raw material choices based on functional performance characteristics. Doing so flexibly: choosing raw materials dependent on their sharpness and durability, alongside a tool's loading potential and anticipated use-life. In this way, we demonstrate that early lithic artefacts at Olduvai Gorge were engineered to be functionally optimized cutting tools.

Early Human Occupation at al-Jamrab (White Nile Region, Central Sudan): A Contribution to the Understanding of the MSA of Eastern Africa

2018 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 193-209 ◽  
Author(s):  
Enza Elena Spinapolice ◽  
Andrea Zerboni ◽  
Michael Meyer ◽  
Donatella Usai
Keyword(s):  
Middle Stone Age ◽  
Eastern Africa ◽  
Site Formation ◽  
Stone Age ◽  
Cultural Layer ◽  
Human Occupation ◽  
Stratigraphic Sequence ◽  
Central Sudan ◽  
Out Of Africa ◽  
White Nile

AbstractThe middle reaches of the Nile River play a key role in the current models about the diffusion of modern Humans out of Africa, nevertheless the Early and the Middle Stone Age (Early Palaeolithic and Middle Palaeolithic) in central Sudan are poorly known. On-going investigation at al-Jamrab (White Nile region) highlights the archaeological potential of the central Sudan and illustrates the importance of an integrated approach combining archaeological excavation and palaeoenvironmental reconstruction for understanding cultural site formation and post-depositional dynamics. The stratigraphic sequence at al-Jamrab includes a thick cultural layer rich in Early and Middle Stone Age artefacts, preserved in a deeply weathered palaeosol developed on fluvial sediments. The cultural layer includes a two-fold human occupation covering the Middle Stone Age, with Acheulean and Sangoan bifacial artefacts, although an Early Stone Age/Middle Stone Age transitional phase cannot be excluded. The artefact-bearing unit is attributed to the Upper Pleistocene based on preliminary OSL dating, the local palaeoenvironmental context, and strong pedogenetic weathering. Considering the paucity of archaeological data for the Pleistocene of Sudan and the importance of this region in the study of human dispersal out of Africa, this preliminary work on a new site and its associated stratigraphic context provides insights into the early peopling of Sudan and adds one more tessera to the Eastern Africa picture.

The Use and Character of Wood in Prehistoric Britain and Ireland

1978 ◽  
Vol 44 ◽  
pp. 1-45 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. M. Coles ◽  
S. V. E. Heal ◽  
B. J. Orme
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Organic Materials ◽  
Raw Materials ◽  
Economic Life ◽  
Stone Age

Wood was one of early man's most valuable and important raw materials. It furnished him with shelter, heat and a range of tools and weapons necessary for his survival. It was perhaps the first material to be employed for tools, even before stone was actively worked, yet wood hardly figures in the minds of many archaeologists, and it plays no part in the traditional, outmoded but convenient Three Age system of European Prehistory: Stone-Bronze-Iron. Yet there is hardly a tool or weapon used by Stone Age, Bronze Age or Iron Age man or woman which did not have a wooden part, and it is the purpose of this paper to point out the wealth of information that is available, or could be obtained, from studies of wooden artifacts.The reason for neglect of such studies is obvious. Wood is perishable; it decays if left exposed, it is easily broken, it burns to nothing, it rots in the soil, it loses its surface in moving water. Its survival for long periods of time is exceptional, and requires certain conditions of deliberate or accidental burial. Yet wood as a fact and a feature of prehistoric economy cannot be disputed. Without the survival of wooden remains, our knowledge of the Neolithic and Bronze Age lake-side settlements in Switzerland would be quartered, and our information about the Iron Age villages at Glastonbury and Biskupin would be substantially reduced. Only in circumstances where conditions are exceptionally favourable has wood survived in an identifiable state, and in these situations it can tell us much about economic life. Grahame Clark expressed the view long ago that ‘less attention (should be) paid to amassing residual fossils from sites unfavourable to the survival of the organic materials which play so important a part in the economy of simple societies, and more to exploring sites where these materials are likely to survive’ (Clark 1940, 58).

A Study on the trade between Yeongnam and Northwestern Kyushu coastal regions: based on the aspect of fishing tools

2019 ◽  
pp. 191-222
Author(s):  
Sang Kyu Lee
Keyword(s):  
Raw Materials ◽  
Social Aspect ◽  
Cultural Transition ◽  
Coastal Regions ◽  
Stone Artifacts ◽  
Ground Stone ◽  
The Social ◽  
Shared Information ◽  
Common Concept ◽  
Trade And Exchange

The trade between Yeongnam and Northwestern Kyushu coastal regions (YNKR) had occurred around the Korea Straits and could be understood as an exchange between fishermen of the two regions in the nature of costal regions. In this study, I examine the trade based on fishing tools in accordance with the characteristics of the two regions sharing the common lifestyle and fisheries. The kinds of fishing tools can be divided into harpoons and fish hooks. The harpoons can be divided into stone and bone types depending on raw materials, and stationary and separable types on using method, having subdivisions. The fish hooks can be divided into composite, singular, and opposite T-shaped types. These tools are categorized into three based on the aspect to the two regions: high similarity, high difference, and different composition. The fishing tools from the both regions are similar in broader perspective but they are also very different in details at the same time, as a result of selective acceptance of shared information within common concept as tools, rather than trade and exchange of actual tools. The chronology of YNKR fishing tools has three phases. In the I phase, the Yeongnam region is dominated by ground stone artifacts and bone harpoons by influence of the East Sea region and tradition of common knapped stone artifacts. In terms of Northwestern Kyushu region, only knapped fishing tools has been found for the I phase, so it is assumed that the knapped stone artifacts tradition is popular in that region. In the II phase, the diversification of subsistance is conspicuous related to propagation of the early agriculture in the Yeongnam region, and harpoons and hooks are only found from certain sites such as Dongsam-dong and Yokji-do. Unlike the Iphase, the ground stone spear shaped harpoons disappear, and knapped stone spear shaped harpoons become thinner. When it comes to the Northwestern Kyushu region, knapped stone fishing tools has been continuously used in broaden area. In addition, obsidian module harpoon, composite hook, and singular hook are started to be used. The III phase in Yeongnam region, the aspect of fisheries considerably declines according to the social aspect of south of Korean Peninsula such as increased mobility, demolition of villages, and simplification of tools. On the other hand, Northwestern Kyushu region has the largest range of sites as well as shows a dramatic increase in the number of fishing tools. In addition, so-called ‘Northwestern Kyushu fishing culture’ represented by the combination of obsidian module harpoon and composite fish hook is completed. In summary, there is active trade between YNKR, and the routes are multilinear in the I phase. In the II phase, the route becomes unilinear, and it is centered around specific areas such as Dongsam-dong and Yokji-do, which strengthen fisheries. In the III phase, there are few voyages from Yeongnam to Kyushe, while the opposite route is busy. These aspects appear to be related to overall cultural transition, according to the environmental and cultural situation of the two regions, in addition to the relationship with adjacent regions.

scholarly journals Investigation of the Palaeolithic and Mesolithic Sites in the Don Basin on the Territory of Volgograd Region

2020 ◽  
pp. 167-187
Author(s):  
Stanislav Remizov
Keyword(s):  
Raw Materials ◽  
Volga Basin ◽  
Upper Paleolithic ◽  
Russian Plain ◽  
Small Rivers ◽  
Stone Age ◽  
Volgograd Region ◽  
Stone Industry ◽  
Xix Century ◽  
Favorable Conditions

The locations of the Stone Age on the Volgograd region territory have been known since the beginning of the XIX century. However, purposeful Stone Age sites explorations had only started after the Sukhaya Mechetka site was discovered by A.P. Koptev and M.N. Grischenko in 1951. The data accumulated on series of stratified sites in Volgograd Region makes it possible to outline two significant groups of them. One of the groups belongs to the Lower Volga basin. The other group is associated with the ramified network of gullies and ravines and multiple tributaries of the Don. The Don is the fourth longest river on the Russian Plain; its basin taken in the Volgograd Region is several times larger than the Volga basin taken in the area. The relatively flat landscape of the Don plain, saturated with small rivers, gullies and ravines, as well as stone raw materials available for mining, have been creating favorable conditions for human habitation since the Middle Paleolithic. The well-known Paleolithic and Mesolithic sites are found both in the watersheds and in the floodplain-terrace areas of the Middle Don. The near-mouth section of the Kurmoyarsky Aksai river – the Don tributary in Kotelnikovo District – and the surroundings of Kremenskaya village in Kletskaya District are standing out in terms of being studied. The stone industry detected in the lower layers of the multilayered site Schlyakh indicates that the Don plain was inhabited by people during the Middle to the Upper Paleolithic transition. The prospects of further searches for Stone Age sites in the Middle Don Basin had already been proven by the discovery of at least forty sites in previous decades. Further archaeological research will help to discover new stratified sites with impressive collections of stone and bone items, which will make it possible to draw analogies with synchronous sites in the territories adjacent to the Volgograd region.

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