The Corraded Assemblage of the «Classic» Malta (Based on the Analysis of the Kunstkamera Collections)

Abstract

The research revision of materials from the 1932 and 1934 collections of the world-famous geoarchaeological site Malta, stored in the Kunstkamera (St. Petersburg), was carried out in the spring of 2023. The purpose of the analysis was to identify lithic artifacts with marks of Aeolian corrasion as part of the study of the corraded industries of the Angara-Belsk geoarchaeological district of South Angara. As a results, 3 663 artifacts were examined, among them 71 corraded items were identified. The results present the corraded component of Malta's lithic industry practically does not differ from the «classical» cultural layers by technical, typological and petrographic features. But unique type of the point with ventral base thinning has no analogue in «classic» assemblage. And if previously these artifacts were interpreted in a regional context as cultural markers of the Initial Upper Paleolithic, now it is proposed to consider them as an element of the Gravett (?) technocomplex in Malta and one more proof of European-Siberian cultural link in author's opinion.