Typological Analysis and Assessment of the Bone-Working Stone Inventory of the Zamostje 2 Late Mesolithic Layer

Abstract

The article presents the results of a typological and functional analysis of flint assemblage from the Late Mesolithic layer (II half of the 7th – early 6th millennium cal BC) at the site Zamostje 2 (Volga-Oka region). The studied series of flint implements is limited to a material from the excavations of 1996–97 and has 11892 artefacts. A typological analysis of the Late Mesolithic flint industry at Zamostje 2 showed the absence of standard blanks and the instability of tool morphology. The shaping of tools was due to the needs of production operations for hard materials. In order to reconstruct the features of bone production in the Late Mesolithic on the East European Plain, the collection was evaluated and 193 items were selected for use-wear analysis. The results of the experimental and traceological analysis revealed 24 tools with microtraces of bone processing, among which scrapers predominate. In a small number there are tools for sawing-cutting and burin cutting (grooves and engravings). A flint polished adze was used to chop a bone or elk antler. The identified implements for working bone (antler), on the one hand, showed a certain homogeneity of morphological characteristics and modes of shaping the working blades of the tools, on the other hand, gave a clear idea of the methods of processing solid organic raw materials in the Late Mesolithic period.