THE INDUSTRY OF COMPLEX II MALYI RAKOVETS IV SITE IN TRANSCARPATHIA

Abstract

The site is located on an isolated hill of the Vyrhorlat-Hutyn volcanic mountain massif of the right bank of the Tysa River, near the village Maly Rakovets, 7 km north of the Korolevo site. At the site, due to the highest location level, there is a reduction in the capacity of Pleistocene deposits. This caused variability in the chronological interpretation of the materials. In the initial description of the stratigraphic context, the layer is fixed in the lower part of the loam soil and at the border with the Pryluky horizon. During the complex study, 2899 artifacts from the collection were processed. The main raw material is local Carpathian III obsidian (94.69 %), which occurs near the site in erosion washes on the slopes of the hill. In the technological sense, the industry can be described as non-Levallois, non-blades, non-facetted, the indices of which are: IF large = 17.5; IF strict = 3.8; ILam = 3. There is in the collection various cores: radial, convergent, parallel, Kombewa. Technology is based on the two methods: centripetal, as well as a fairly simple technique for obtaining blanks, which is presented by parallel and unidirectional cores, with a clear predominance of transverse proportions of products. The process of core reduction was quite intensive, a hard hammer was used. Production mostly aimed at receiving massive flakes of lateral proportions with naturally back, often crusted (43 %). Such blanks were prioritized for the manufacture of tools — 60 %. There are few tools, but among them a group of single-edged scrapers, the most prominent of which are transverse ones, is highlighted. They show specific design features, namely the retouching of the longest edge of the blank with a stepped retouch of the half-Quina type and the presence of accommodation elements. The technical and typological characteristics of the II complex are quite similar to the industry of the Korolevo site layer II, and allow to attribute it to the circle of industries of the Charentian / Quina type.