Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia 45 (2) 2017   DOI: 10.17746/1563-0110.2017.45.2.026-034

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Technical and Morphological Model
of Chalcolithic Chopping Tools of the Russian-Karelian Type
from Karelia and the Upper Volga Region

A.Y. Tarasov

Institute of Language, Literature and History, Karelian Research Center, Russian Academy of Sciences, Pushkinskaya 11, Petrozavodsk, 185910, Russia

This article addresses chopping tools (axes and adzes) from the Chalcolithic peatbog sites at Sakhtysh, Karelia, associated with the Volosovo culture. This group was first separated on the basis of technological and typological criteria, and their connection with the Volosovo component of these culturally and temporally heterogeneous sites was later verified with a detailed spatial analysis. The main traits of the Volosovo tools match those of the Russian-Karelian type, found in Russian Karelia at Chalcolithic sites with asbestos and porous ware. The analysis of the blanks suggests that their production followed a certain technological and typological model. The basic type of tool had atrapezoid or triangular cross-section, which was formed at the knapping stage and could then have been transformed into a semi-oval. Knapping was done with the punch technique, also evidenced by axes with a tetrahedral crosssection, widespread in the Neolithic of Northern, Central, and Eastern Europe. The Volosovo chopping tools at the sites with asbestos ware in the Upper Volga region and Karelia follow the same single technological tradition. Its distribution area cannot be delimited as of yet, but it could have extended beyond that of the axes with a tetrahedral cross-section.

Keywords: Chopping tools, axes, adzes, Volosovo culture, asbestos ware, Upper Volga, Karelia, Sakhtysh sites, Russian-Karelian type.