Morpho-Typological Characteristics of Lithic Tools from the Dwelling of the Cultural Horizon 3Б at the Kovrizhka IV Site (Baikal-Patom Upland, Late Paleolithic)

Abstract

The article presents the morpho-typological characteristics of a collection of lithic artefacts from the dwelling of the cultural horizon 3B at the Kovrizhka IV site, Baikal-Patom Upland, Vitim River. This collection, numbering over 55,000 items, is the largest among all cultural horizons of the site. The complex dates to approximately 18.8 ka cal. BP. The tools include knives, end- and side-scrapers, burins, carvers, and borer-awls, which are weakly modified flakes with working edges, scraper retouch, and burin chips. A distinctive feature of the assemblage is the combination of technical production contexts for microblades, macroblades, coarse-prismatic small blades, flakes production, and fascial processing of products. For the first time at Kovrizhka IV and thus for the Vitim region at the end of the Last Glacial Maximum, a Yubetsu-technique core, a context of coarse-prismatic blade production, and several original tool forms have been identified. One of the representative assemblage of lithic artefacts from resident site characterizing the culture of the late Upper Paleolithic culture in the region is obtained. Morpho-typological parallels of a cross-regional nature and a wide chronological coverage are designated. Together, the technical contexts of macroblade, mesoblade, and microblade production reflect an accumulative pattern of preservation and transmission of technical traditions tracing back to the early and middle stages of the Upper Paleolithic in Eastern Siberia, as well as to traditions established in the Late Upper Paleolithic.