Каменный инвентарь энеолитического комплекса поселения Пякупур 3 (северотаежная зона Западной Сибири)

Abstract

The article studies stone tools defined out of a mixed cultural deposit of Pyakupur 3 settlement dated back to the Eneolithic and Early Bronze Age and situated in the North taiga zone of the Western Siberia. To date the stone industry of Eneolithic region is described only generally. Therefore, any new data would be overly relevant, and morphology and functional description of the tools would be in particular. The purpose of the study is to determine distinctive parameters of splitting products and stone industry tools of the Eneolithic complex of Pyakupur 3 settlement. Pursuant thereto objectives of the study were formulated: planigraphic and raw material analysis of stone items to form a set for the defined period; typological research of the selected items; functional analysis of the tools’ intended use. As the result of the comprehensive approach the study defined basic features and functional intended use of the stone tools used by the settlers during the Eneolithic. The trace evidence analysis uses previously determined universal sets of traces adapted for the studies materials. These sets are applied to each find assuming that they are potentially used tools. To verify trace evidence observations experiments were conducted. The experiments aimed at using quartz tools for wood scraping and skin treatment. The determined raw material complex motivates the nature of the industry in Pyakupur 3 during the Eneolithic. The study revealed several techniques for obtaining tools blanks based on properties of various rocks. Depending on the target of the technology, tool production relied on two techniques of stone processing. The first one is primary (prismatic and counter-impact) splitting and secondary processing (retouching and polishing). The determined Pyakupur complex is fragmental due to a limited set of item types with a distinct morphology, and these items do not form a sustainable series. There is a minor but distinctive and specific group formed with cutters on chips of flint and quartz, chisel-shaped tools which can be related to рiece esquillées. This can be interpreted as an authentic feature of the settlement’s stone industry. The tool kit is rather mediocre, however it demonstrates nearly all the elements of the management & production cycle of the settlement. It included hunting, prey butchering, stone processing, tanning, wood and bone crafts. Despite of a low representativeness of the Pyakupur tool set morphology, the stone tools are related to the slate 7 quartz industry common for the taiga zone of the Western Siberia.