Use-wear traces on Mesolithic slotted bone arrowheads from the Volga-Oka interfluve, European Russia

Abstract

Excavations of multilayer peat bog sites carried out during 1989–2002 in the Volga-Oka interfluve in the center of European Russia yielded a number of slotted bone arrowheads dated from the very beginning of the Mesolithic up to the Early Neolithic. Some of them preserved flint inserts in their slots, fixed with the help of dark glue. Traceological analysis of these artefacts revealed various traces of their manufacture and use. The latter include blunting and rounding of the tip of the bone point, accompanied by polishing and linear traces. Damage scars, severe smashing and splitting of the point indicate hitting hard material. Specific use-wear traces on points of arrowheads similar to ones observed on digging tools indicate hitting the ground, probably when the arrow missed the target.

Use-wear traces observed on flint inserts preserved in situ in slots of arrowheads include edge damage in the shape of micro chipping, bending fractures and notches usually accompanied by a thin streak of polish along the edge and scarce linear traces. The latter consist of thin strips of interrupted bright polish sometimes accompanied by scarce thin scratches running subparallel to the insert edge or at an acute angle to it. Abrasion of the edge observed on inserts of some arrowheads could be a result of attrition inside a quiver or of contact with some other material.

Use-wear traces are rather poorly developed on most studied arrowheads indicating short time of use. However, some bone slotted arrowheads yielded very well pronounced use-wear traces pointing at a long use of such arrowheads. Some of the latter show traces of repair after breakage, mostly reshaping of the point. Probably their owners treated these arrowheads with special care.

Inserts were fixed in slots with the help of glue made of birch bark tar with an admixture of charcoal dust. First, the glue was put in the slot, after it, inserts already arranged in a line were placed into the slot and extra glue was removed. Similar glue on bevels of bone arrowheads indicate hafting in a split shaft or in a conical nest drilled at the end of an arrow shaft.