Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia 50 (1) 2022   doi:10.17746/1563-0110.2022.50.1.003-013

Annotation:  Fossil Bone Implements in the Industry of the Early Paleolithic Site Bogatyri/ Sinyaya Balka (Taman Paleoenvironmental Conditions of Neanderthal Habitation in the Altai: Chagyrskaya and Okladnikov Cav Komudvany—a Final Paleolithic Site in the Lower Ob Valley: Geomorphology, Paleontology, Archaeology On the Cultural Geography of the Eastern Caucasus and Southern Caspian in the Mesolithic Ornaments Made from Unio Shells in a Neolithic Burial at Ust-Aleika-5, Barnaul, Southwestern Siberia The Specifics of Japanese Terms Referring to the Jomon Period, Based on Publications by Yamanouchi S A New Andronovo (Fedorovka) Cemetery in the Eastern Irtysh Basin Stone Tools from an Island in Berd Bay, Novosibirsk Reservoir Metal Celts from the Little Sea Coast of Lake Baikal A Group of Large Kurgans in the Suusamyr Valley, Kyrgyzstan Female Burials with Weapons in the Early Nomadic Kurgans in the Southern Urals (Late 5th to 2nd Cent The Chemical Analysis of Glass Samples from Roman Era Cemeteries in the Crimean Piedmont A Set of Clothing Items from the Iyus Hoard Monumental Wooden Statues from the Ust-Voikary Fortifi ed Settlement, Northwestern Siberia: A Multid The Aul-Koshkul-1 Cemetery in the Baraba Forest-Steppe: Findings of a Multidisciplinary Study Chronic Maxillary Sinusitis Recorded in Archaeological Samples: Geographical Distribution and Predis   

Fossil Bone Implements in the Industry
of the Early Paleolithic Site Bogatyri/Sinyaya Balka
(Taman Peninsula)

S.A. Kulakov^{1, 2}, E.Y. Girya², and V.V. Titov³

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

²Institute for the History of Material Culture, Russian Academy of Sciences, Dvortsovaya nab. 18, St. Petersburg, 191186, Russia

³Southern Scientific Center, Russian Academy of Sciences, Pr. Chekhova 41, Rostov-on-Don, 344006, Russia

We describe three processed fossilized bones of sea mammals of the Miocene age, discovered in various years, but in similar stratigraphic and planigraphic contexts, at the Early Paleolithic site Bogatyri/Sinyaya Balka, on the northern coast of the Taman Peninsula. We provide information on the age, stratigraphy, and planigraphy of the site, interpreted as a place for butchering carcasses of elephants and rhinoceroses (elasmotheres). Results of traceological analysis suggest that two fossilized seal bones had been split by the counterstrike technique on soft (wooden or bone) anvils, while the third bone had been more thoroughly processed. All three specimens may have been collected from coastal deposits. Fossilized seal bones were evidently used as raw material along with rocks and animal bones of the Taman faunal complex. Small and inconvenient as they are, such bones provided the hardest isotropic material available at the site. That their use was not incidental is convincingly demonstrated by artifact No. 1, found in 2005. The point made on this bone is situated in the middle of an intentionally prepared blade, in a notch fashioned by shallow retouch. This bone tool is quite similar to other points in the Early Paleolithic industry of Bogatyri/Sinyaya Balka. Tools of that category differ in shape and size, but are similar because of a special morphological element— a point (bec, borer, etc.) shaped by a combination of retouch and small encoches at any suitable place in the blank such as jointing or spall.

Keywords: Early Paleolithic, Northern Eurasia, Bogatyri/Sinyaya Balka, Paleolithic industries, fossilized bone artifacts, morphological and traceological analyzes