Personal Ornaments from Kostenki 17, Layer II: Manufacturing, Usage and Cultural Context Within the Initial Upper Palaeolithic of Eastern Europe

Abstract

Layer II of Kostenki 17 has yielded one of the earliest Upper Palaeolithic assemblages in Eastern Europe. In addition to lithic and bone implements, the collection includes numerous ornaments with perforated holes made from fox teeth, petrified remains and soft stones. This collection of ornaments is unique in both the variety of raw materials and the peculiarity of manufacturing technologies. The paper presents the results of a use-wear study of these ornaments, designed to answer the questions about how the raw materials were selected and processed, how the finished adornments were used and what could have been the ways of their getting into the cultural layer. All petrified remains as well as pebbles and faunal materials come from local sources. The processing of belemnite rostras involved a rather complex sequence of different techniques from drilling and engraving to termo-chemical surface treatment. Cutting and abrasion were used to produce some pendants made of soft stone. It is shown that the set of techniques used to make stripes of fox teeth was more diverse than previously thought.