Unusual Items: Tiny, Pointed, Made of Ivory

Abstract

The paper presents the first publication of unique ivory micro-artefacts identified in materials of the multilayered Palaeolithic sites Medzhibozh A and Zaskalnaya V. The objects under discussion represent the oldest currently known instances of anthropogenic modification of tusk material using the bipolar-on-anvil knapping and trimming techniques and retouching. Medzhibozh A is located in the Southern Bug valley; layer I—II with a Mammuthus trogontherii tusk artefact is dated to the Middle Pleistocene (MIS 11) and contains archaic core-and-flake lithic industry. Zaskalnaya V is located in Eastern Crimea; layer IV with a worked Mammuthus primigenius tusk fragment is dated to the Late Pleistocene (MIS 5a), and the accompanying industry is referred to as Micoquian. Despite the significant chronological and geographical remotedness, as well as different cultural and technological contexts, the objects in question are fundamentally similar in processing technology, identical in raw material, and have close dimensions and general morphology. In both cases, the likely intention was quite similar and rather unusual: to create useless, from a practical point of view, tiny objects from small fragments of marginally suitable for splitting material. The makers used the technology routinely applied to manufacture stone tools. The similarity of the tasks and solutions can find a reasonable, though speculative, explanation by assuming that in both cases we are dealing with a simulation of the stone-working process by children.