Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia 51 (4) 2023   doi:10.17746/1563-0110.2023.51.4.025-034

Annotation:  Early Upper Paleolithic Tubular Beads from the Main Chamber of Denisova Cave Stoilo—A Paleolithic Site in the Southern Angara Region, Siberia Stone Age Ivory Points from the Arctic Zone of Northeast Asia An Early Neolithic Bone and Antler Industry of Rakushechny Yar on the Lower Don: Technological Strat Rock Art of the Ana Zaga Cave Shelter in the Archaeological Landscape of Gobustan, Azerbaijan The Russian Archaeological Project in South America: Principal Findings and Prospects Chronology of Rock Art of the Russian and Mongolian Altai: From the Paleolithic to the Late Middle A Lobed Ware in the Far East from the Neolithic to the Middle Ages Wooden Paddles from the Nizhny Tagil Museum-Reserve of Mining and Metallurgy in the Urals Spatial Distribution of Finds on the Eastern Outskirts of Poltse I, the Amur Region Contents of an Early Byzantine Amphora from Kruglaya Bay, the Black Sea Shift of the Yenisei and Abakan Beds as Reasons for Constructing the Second Abakan Fort in 1707 Corvids in the Buryat Traditional Worldview The Old Believers’ Churchyard: Semiotics of Cultural Space (The Case of the Ust-Tsilma Old Believers A Case of Surgical Treatment of Lower Molars in a Mesolithic Sample from a Cemetery on the Yuzhny Ol Origin of the Andronovans: A Statistical Approach   

Stone Age Ivory Points from the Arctic Zone of Northeast Asia

A.V. Kandyba¹, L.V. Zotkina^{1, 2}, S.E. Grigoriev³, S.E. Fedorov³, M.Y. Cheprasov³, G.P. Novgorodov³, A.V. Petrozhitskiy⁴, D.V. Kuleshov¹, and V.V. Parkhomchuk⁴

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

²Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, “ArchaeoZOOlogy in Siberia and Central Asia” ZooSCAn International Research Laboratory, IRL 2013, Pr. Akademika Lavrentieva 17, Novosibirsk, 630090, Russia

³Lazarev Mammoth Museum, Ammosov North-Eastern Federal University, Kulakovskogo 48, Yakutsk, 677000, Russia

⁴Budker Institute of Nuclear Physics, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, Pr. Akademika Lavrentieva 11, Novosibirsk, 630090, Russia

We give a technological and typological description of two well-preserved points (one fragmented rod-shaped, the other double-slotted), made of mammoth ivory and found in the Ust-Yansky District of Sakha-Yakutia in 2016. Traces evidencing various stages of manufacture are described in detail. A succession of technological operations is reconstructed, from the preparation of preforms and further processing by planing and abrasion to final polishing. Spall negatives on artifacts are interpreted as post-depositional damage that could have occurred from the effect of cryogenic processes in sediments. The slotted specimen is decorated with five finely engraved arrows. The discovery context and the morphology of the rod-shaped specimen are similar to those of ivory points from the Yana sites, whereas the slotted one resembles those from Zhokhovo and other Northeast Asian sites of the same age. Radiocarbon analysis of the points supports these findings. The following conclusions are reached: the rod-shaped point dates to MIS 3, and the slotted one, to MIS 2; such points evidence an elaborate technology of ivory processing during the Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene in the high latitudes of Northeast Asia and an adaptation to the scarcity of lithic raw material in the region.

Keywords: Northeast Asia, Pleistocene, Holocene, mammoth ivory, ivory points, traceological analysis