New Data on Lithic Industries from Pleistocene Deposits of the Denisova Cave, Main Chamber / Новые данные по каменным индустриям из плейстоценовых отложений центрального зала Денисовой пещеры. 2016 (original) (raw)
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The paper presents the results provided by technical research focused on bone tools and ornaments recovered from layer 11 in the Main Chamber of Denisova Cave in 2016. The manufacture of ornaments involved the use of a great variety of materials: soft gemstones, tubular bones of animals and birds, teeth of herbivorous and carnivorous mammals, ivory, as well as shells from freshwater clams. Production techniques employed for manufacturing bone tools and non- utilitarian objects included several stages: selecting a raw material; obtaining a half-finished product; processing by shaping, scraping, grinding, drilling and polishing. A number of processing methods (grinding, drilling, cutting, polishing), being specific for the early Upper Paleolithic period, were utilized in this industry for producing objects from bone and ivory, as well as for soft stones working. Bone tools are represented by a point and fragments of needle cases or by hafts. According to their function, the ornaments from layer 11 can be classified into various types: flat and dimensional beads; holed beads; pendants with the circular grooves or with one drilled hole; plaques with two holes; an ornamented plate. The use-wear analysis has enabled the identification of the wear traces on the surfaces of the studied products, suggesting utilization and indicating the long-term use. The abundance, morphological and functional variability of the ornaments from layer 11 reflect an exceptional diversity of the methods used for personal ornamentation, implying the existence of preferences and traditions in the use of these objects.
2017
The paper presents the results provided by technical research focused on personal ornaments recovered from layer 11 in the Main Chamber of Denisova Cave in 2016 and 2017. Personal ornaments and bone tools from Denisova cave are one of the oldest and most expressive elements of modern human behavior, known in the Paleolithic of Northern and Central Asia. These items are considered an element of cultural identity and a chronological marker of the first Upper Paleolithic societies in Altay region. All bone tools and personal ornaments come from stratified and well-dated archaeological contexts. As a result of integrated, multidisciplinary investigations – including petrographic, experimental, use-wear and technological analysis – we reconstructed the chaîne opératoire of these non-utilitarian artefacts. The manufacture of personal ornaments involved the use of a great variety of raw materials: soft stones, tubular bones of animals and birds, teeth of mammals, mammoth ivory, as well as shells from freshwater clams. Production techniques employed for manufacturing non-utilitarian objects included several stages: selecting a raw material; obtaining a half-finished product; processing by shaping, scraping, grinding, drilling and polishing. A number of processing methods (grinding, drilling, cutting, polishing), being specific for the early Upper Paleolithic period, were utilized in this industry for producing objects from bone and ivory, as well as for soft stones working. According to their function, the ornaments from layer 11 can be classified into various types: flat and dimensional beads; holed beads; pendants with the circular grooves or with one drilled hole; plaques with two holes. A unique specimen in the collection is a fragment of ornamental ivory diadem (headband). Results of technological and use-wear analysis of personal ornaments from Paleolithic complexes of Denisova cave demonstrate communication of these objects with various functional and semantic systems. The morphology of use-wear traces indicates the use of the majority of Denisova cave beads, pendants and plaques as everyday items – personal wearable ornaments and elements of clothes decoration. The abundance, morphological and functional variability of the ornaments from layer 11 reflect an exceptional diversity of the methods used for personal ornamentation, implying the existence of preferences and traditions in the use of these objects.
In 2017, archaeological studies of the Pleistocene deposits in the South Chamber of Denisova Cave have been resumed. The deposits constituting the upper part of the Pleistocene strata have been examined at the mouth of the cave on the lines forming grids Е and Ж, including lithological layers 9 and 11. Layer 11, containing the deposits accumulated during the first half of MIS 3, has yielded lithic artifacts that can be attributed to the Early Upper Paleolithic. Primary flaking in this industry is characterized by radial and sub-prismatic cores. The analysis of flakes suggests that the parallel and Levallois reduction strategies were employed. The tool assemblage also reveals the combination of the Middle and Upper Paleolithic elements. Archaeological evidence from layer 9, whose deposits were accumulated during the Last Glacial Maximum, reflects the further development of blade technology.
Interdisciplinary research in Iron Age sites from the Tisa-Dniester area Materialele colloquium-ului de vară de la Saharna 13-16 iulie 2017 Proceedings of Saharna Summer Colloquium July 13th-16th, 2017, 2018
В статье представлен анализ антропологического материала, полученного при археологических раскопках многослойного поселения Чобручи в Нижнем Поднестровье. Были изучены два человеческих костяка (раскопки 2005 г.), которые находились в округлых в ямах. В одном из захоронений у ног погребённого были обнаружены фрагменты лепной и гончарной керамики, а также нижняя челюсть собаки. Немногочисленные фрагменты керамики, а вместе с ним и захоронение, принадлежат гетской культуре. При работе с человеческими костяками были использованы стандартные антропологические методы исследования. В результате было установлено, что скелеты принадлежали женщинам зрелого (40-50 лет) и пожилого (45-60 лет) возраста, при росте 145 см и 156 см. Кроме того, выявлены разнообразные патологические изменения (поражение фаланги пальца руки, свищ на нижней челюсти, зубной кариес и др.). Исследования антропологических материалов из поселения Чобручи в перспективе позволят изучить ряд важнейших вопросов, главным из которых является этническая принадлежность. The article presents an analysis of the anthropological material obtained during archaeological excavations of the multilayered settlement Chobruchi in the Lower Dniester region. Two human skeletons (excavations of 2005), which were in rounded pits, were studied. Fragments of handmade and wheel-made pottery, as well as the lower jaw of a dog, were found in one of the graves at the feet of the buried. A few pottery fragments belong to the Getae culture. Standard anthropological methods of investigation were used while working with human skeletons. As a result, it was found that they belonged to mature women of 40-50 years and of 45-60 years, with a height of 145 cm and 156 cm. In addition, various pathological changes were detected (defeat of the phalanx of the finger, fistula on the mandible, dental caries, etc.). The future researches of the anthropological materials from the Chobruchi settlement will offer the opportunity of studying a number of important topics, the main of which is the ethnical aspect.
ДРЕВНОСТИ. ИССЛЕДОВАНИЯ. ПРОБЛЕМЫ., 2018
В статье рассматривается новый подход к систематизации костно-роговой индустрии VI—II вв. до н. э. из Нижнего Поднестровья. Принципы этого подхода подробно излагаются впервые. Они применимы к любой части археологиче- ской ойкумены, где имеются кость и рог, преобразованные и использованные человеком. Специалисты обычно стара- ются поместить обработанный костно-роговой материал в создаваемые ими классификации целиком и без остатка. При этом классификации содержат обязательное требование, устанавливаемое самими исследователями — необхо- димость аргументированных представлений о назначении и сферах применения изделий. Однако из-за нехватки сле- доведческих данных и незавершенности функциональных исследований такие представления нередко являются лишь видимостью знаний. Поэтому для упорядочения фрагментарного, неполного и неравномерно изученного материала требуются системные средства и адекватный понятийно-терминологический аппарат. Костно-роговое сырье пред- почтительнее рассматривать как определенные естественные структуры, видоизменяемые в ходе обработки. В этом смысле функционально-технологическая концепция, согласно которой кость и рог адаптируются, модифицируются или конвертируются в изделия, восходит к построениям А. П. Бородовского. Трасология, наряду с другими методами функ- ционального анализа, помогает внедрить в классификацию все так или иначе идентифицированные артефакты. Их технические функции и способы применения являются особой исследовательской проблемой. Классы древнего осна- щения включают подклассы инструментов, приспособлений и принадлежностей. Таковые по-разному воздействовали на внешние объекты и вещества или взаимодействовали с ними, что выражается в рациональной форме и характере изнашивания изделий. Группы орудий, устройств, узлов, фурнитуры и атрибутов внутри подклассов сполна отражают разнообразие материала. Предлагаемый метод упорядочения позволяет, по мере накопления новых знаний, свободно перемещать группируемые единицы или менять позиции в иерархии подразделений, однако ключевая идея метода остается при этом действенной. The paper aims to survey current systematizing developments for the osseous industries dated back to the 6th—2nd centuries BC in the Northwest Pontic area. These trends, however, appear to be applicable to any of the many workedbone- containing parts in the whole archaeological oecumene. The readers are introduced to the classificatory concepts which only have been explicated in parts elsewhere. Basically, the North Pontic archaeologists definitely used to seek their worked bone archaeological record to be completely imposed into classification. Yet any kind of such classifications normally contains impermeable inherent limits set up by the researchers themselves, who usually face a scarcity of comprehensive expert data. Here, some special solutions to the problem are put forward based on systemic classificatory approach. The approach refers to the osseous raw material structures and the ways they have been transformed during manufacture. The technoclasses concept of adapting, modifying, and converting bone and antler during utilization goes back, in particular, to Andrei Borodovskiy’s technological systematics. The traceological studies, in turn, tend to embed all identifiable objects into a system, since many more different means of functional analysis would work as verifying methods. At the same time, the artefacts’ technical functions and the manners they were used are the issues of special research concern. Further, the ways past equipment including instruments, implements, and accessories might have affected on or interacted with objects and substances, resulted in rational shapes and use-wear patterns in artefacts. The entities of tools, devices, joints, furniture, andparaphernalia seem to be quite perceptive to the variability in worked bone and antler record. This kind of arrangement may have been flexibly changed in terms of its units and even sections hierarchy, whereas its principal ideas are here to stay with no need them to be rearranged.
In 2017, the study of the Holocene strata at the mouth of the South Chamber in Denisova Cave was continued. The stratigraphic profile in this part of the cave has revealed eight units – layers 0, and 2–8. Layer 2 yielded archaeological evidence attributed to the Early Iron Age, mostly including pottery fragments and isolated Medieval finds. The greater part of layer 3 had been destroyed by an ancient pit resulting from anthropogenic activities; the filling of the pit contained mixed archaeological assemblages dating to the Early Iron Age and Early Bronze Age. Layers 4 and 5 mainly contained pottery fragments associated with the Afanasievo culture of the Early Bronze Age. Layers 6 and 7 contained lithic artifacts which appear to have been redeposited from the underlying Pleistocene sediments due to the activities of burrowing animals. Layers 0 and 8 turned out to be sterile.
2016
Bone needle, being unique in its well-preserved state, was recovered in 2016 in lithological horizon 11.2 in the Main Chamber of Denisova Cave. The main stages in manufacturing the needle were reconstructed as follows: obtaining a half- finished product from the tubular bone wall of a large mammal by cutting and splitting; shaping and grinding the obtained blank; double-sided drilling and finishing polish. The small diameter of the needle’s eye suggests using a tenuous thread of about 1 mm diameter. This research has made it possible to reveal the wear traces on the needle surface related to the long-term use of the product according to its function. A total of 13 items associated with the context for producing bone needles were recognized and studied in the Paleolithic collections from Denisova Cave. A comparison between these tools and artifacts from the other sites, which yielded similar finds, enables consideration of the bone needles found in layer 11 at Denisova Cave as the earliest articles of this type in Eurasia.