Mammoth ivory technologies in the Upper Palaeolithic: a case study based on the materials from Yana RHS, Northern Yana-Indighirka lowland, Arctic Siberia

Abstract

Processing of mammoth ivory and manufacturing of diverse ivory artefacts is widely recognized as one of the most important characteristics of the material culture of ancient humans. These technological skills reach their greatest extent and development shortly before the Last Glacial Maximum but are recognizable until the Pleistocene-Holocene boundary across Northern Eurasia in all areas populated by mammoths and humans. As a cultural phenomenon, ivory working is intriguing with respect to flaking technology and especially the production of long ivory shafts. Technological operations in the Upper Palaeolithic of Northern Eurasia have been closely influenced, on the one hand, by the size and shape of the desirable final product and, on the other, by knowledge of raw material properties. Study of the morphology of the artefactual material from the Yana site complex in Arctic Siberia convincingly reveals the technological processes involved. Several technological cycles (chaînes opératoires) can be recognized, including the manufacture of long ivory shafts by exfoliation and wedging. The Yana ivory technology dates roughly to 28,000 bp in radiocarbon years.