Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia 46 (1) 2018   DOI: 10.17746/1563-0110.2018.46.1.003-015

Annotation:  Personal Ornament Production Technology in the Early Holocene Complexes of Western Central Asia: Ins Hadjoh-2: A Middle Paleolithic Workshop-Camp in Northwestern Caucasus The Late Chalcolithic Ceramics of the Volga Forest-Steppe On the Origin of Natural Bitumen at Yasnoye-8 (Sakhalin Island) Inskoy Dol: A New Early Bronze Age Site in Western Altai Decorated Birch-Bark Artifacts from the Ust-Polui Sanctuary (100 BC to 100 AD) An Old Turkic Statue from Borili, Ulytau Hills, Central Kazakhstan: Issues in Interpretation On Ancient Agriculture in Arid Regions of Central Asia: The Case of the Uvs Nuur Basin Geophysical Studies at the Kushmanskoye (Uchkakar) Fortifi ed Settlement, Kama Basin Pit-Grave (Yamnaya) and Pit-Grave-Maikop Burials at Levoyegorlyksky-3, Stavropol A Periodization of the Timber-Grave Culture in the Western Orenburg Region: Archaeological and Natur The Russian Pioneers’ Winter Camp on Karachinsky Island, the Lower Tobol River, Western Siberia An Experimental Assessment of the Cause of Mummification in the Joseon Period Burials, Republic of K Celestial Bodies on the Ob Ugrian Ritual Artifacts (Based on Archaeological and Ethnographic Sources Craniotomy as a Prehistoric Medical Practice: A Case of Antemortem Cranial Trepanation in Southern Secular and Age-Related Dynamics of Biological Characteristics in the Rural Population of Mongolia:   

Personal Ornament Production Technology
in the Early Holocene Complexes of Western Central Asia:
Insights from Obishir-5

A.Y. Fedorchenko¹, S.V. Shnaider¹, М.T. Krajcarz², M.E. Romanenko³, А.K. Abdykanova⁴, К.А. Kolobova^{1, 5}, S. Alisher kyzy³, W. Taylor⁶, and А.I. Krivoshapkin^{1, 3}

¹Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, Pr. Akademika Lavrentieva 17, Novosibirsk, 630090, Russia

²Institute of Geological Sciences, Polish Academy of Sciences, Twarda 51/55, Warsaw, 00-818, Poland

³Novosibirsk State University, Pirogova 1, Novosibirsk, 630090, Russia

⁴American University of Central Asia, Aaly Tokombaev 7/6, Bishkek, 720060, Kyrgyz Republic

⁵Altai State University, Lenina 61, Barnaul, 656049, Russia

⁶Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Kahlaische St. 10, Jena, 07745, Germany

The stratified site of Obishir-5 is one of the most important Final Pleistocene to Early Holocene sites in western Central Asia. In the Early Holocene component (10,700–8200 cal BP) of this site (layers 2 and 3), we discovered one of the oldest and largest assemblages of soft stone ornaments known from the region. It includes 5 items: three oval, sub-triangular, and sub-rectangular pendants, one “labret”-like ornament, and one ornament blank. All specimens come from stratified and well-dated contexts. As a result of the petrographic, experimental, use-wear, and technological analysis, we reconstructed the chaine operatoire of these artifacts. To produce them, local raw materials (talcite and serpentinite) were from a source located 4.5 km away from the site. Small pebbles, shatters, and spalls split from nodules were used as blanks. The surface of the blank was first prepared using grinders and burins, then biconical drilling and polishing were used to finish the artifact. Our results point to an established tradition of personal ornament production from soft stone in western Central Asia during the Early Holocene. Comparison of these nonutilitarian artifacts with those from other Final Pleistocene to Early Holocene archaeological complexes across Central Asia, the Middle East, and the Near East suggests that personal ornament manufacture may be an important hallmark of social developments across a broad geographic region.

Keywords: Central Asia, Mesolithic, experimental use-wear analysis, technological analysis, symbolic behavior, personal ornaments, pendants.