Pebble tools and colored rocks in the collection of the Late Palaeolithic site of Eliseevitchi 1 stored in Kustkamera Museum

Abstract

The article presents a functional definition of several finds made by K.M. Polikarpovich at the initial stage of studying the most interesting and complex site of the Late Upper Paleolithic — Eliseevichi 1. Previously, a large number of stones found in the ash lens in the excavation area 2 (1936) were noted only as a specific feature of the cultural layer, but their categorical analysis was not carried out. This study focuses on the tools identified in the assemblage of «crystalline rocks» (hammerstones and tools for crushing raw materials for mineral colorants, including those with painted surfaces), and probably non-utilitarian objects — stones with colored blurs. Although the described groups consist of a small number of finds (see Table 1), they display high level of homogeneity of features on intra-group level, and the tools inclusion in the general production context of the industry as well as. This represents, on the one hand, a full cycle of the production of tools from local cretaceous flint, and on the other hand, all stages of the production of mineral colorants, from splitting pieces and burning them to “pencils” with traces of use, also founded in the collection. While the previous long-term interdisciplinary studies of the Eliseevichi 1 site established the complex character of the cultural layer formation, its accumulation over repeated visits to the cape by ancient groups, possibly even within several millennia, however, the assemblage of artifacts of granular rocks from the excavation space 2 (1936) seems to be a rather homogeneous complex, characterized by the stylistic unity, manifested through the coloring of individual surfaces of tools and split pebbles.