Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia 38 (1) 2010

Annotation:  Siliceous Rock of the Southern Urals: Distribution and Usage in the Stone Age Periods, Boundaries, and Contact Zones in the Far Eastern Insular World of the Neolithic (Based on Oyster Cultivation and Archaeology as Producing Activities Early Iron Age Dyupsya Burial, Central Yakutia The “Osmium Trace” in Mineral Inclusions in Ancient Gold Artifacts Social Structure of the Early Medieval Population in the Upper Kama Region (Based on Evidence from t Bronze Helmet Recently Discovered in Mongolia The Matchmaker’s Staffs from Fort Nadym of the 17th–18th Centuries Dendrochronological Survey of the Towers from the Kazym Ostrog Dendrochronological Dating of the Groundsill for the Bell Tower of the Spasskaya Church in Irkutsk Marriages among the Tobol-Irtysh Tatars in the Late 18th – Early 20th Centuries The Altai Cossacks in the 18th – Early 20th Centuries ANTHROPOL A Fossil Human Humerus from Khvalynsk: Morphology and Taxonomy Skeletal Remains from Buston VI – a Sapalli Culture Cemetery in Uzbekistan New Craniometric Evidence on the Origin of the Karelians (the Kylalahti Kalmistomäki Burial Ground) The Maikop Crania Revisited   

Siliceous Rock of the Southern Urals: Distribution and Usage in the Stone Age

V.S. Mosin and V.Y. Nikolsky.

Relationships between the distribution of stone tools, the sources of siliceous rocks, and the geological structure of the Southern Urals are examined. Siliceous rocks mostly used by the Stone Age population of that region include phtanite, phtanitoid, jasper, novaculite, and also minerals such as quartz, opal, and chalcedony. Siliceous rocks are mostly concentrated in the eugeosynclinal region of the Urals, primarily within the Magnitogorsk structural zone. Siliceous rocks are normally outcrops on low ridges and hills among Paleozoic volcanogenic rocks. As observations have shown, siliceous detritus occur in the area stretching to the eastern margin of the continental-marine socle plain. A model for possible transportation routes and utilization of the raw material by the ancient inhabitants of the region is proposed.

Keywords: Phtanite, phtanitoid, jasper, dispersal of siliceous rocks, variants of material culture, adaptation.