Indexing metadata

LITHIC TECHNOLOGY OF THE SOSRUKO ROCKSHELTER EARLY HOLOCENE INDUSTRIES

Dublin Core PKP Metadata Items Metadata for this Document
1. Title Title of document LITHIC TECHNOLOGY OF THE SOSRUKO ROCKSHELTER EARLY HOLOCENE INDUSTRIES
2. Creator Author's name, affiliation, country Daria K. Eskova; Institute of Archaeology of RAS ; Russian Federation
3. Subject Discipline(s)
3. Subject Keyword(s) Mesolithic; North Caucasus; Elbrus region; lithic technology; pressure technique; chronology
4. Description Abstract

The paper discusses the emergence and spread of pressure blademaking in the Elbrus region of the North Caucasus. The results of the lithic technology analysis of the key stratified site of the Mesolithic Layers M-1 and M-2 of the Sosruko Rockshelter are presented. The materials from the excavations of 1955-1957, conducted by S.N. Zamyatnin and P.G. Akritas, were considered. There are few but unquestionable signs of the pressure blademaking use in Layer M-2 dated to the second half of the 10th mil. BC. The full operational chain of bladelet production with the use of pressure technique was revealed in Layer M-1 dated to the second quarter of the 9th mil. BC – the beginning of the 8th mil. BC. The pressure Mode 1 (manual pressure) was used to produce the microbladelets and narrow bladelets with the flint heat treatment. Moreover, the pressure cores had a wide flaking surface with the linear distal end and a slightly inclined facetted platform. The blades in the industries of Layers M1 and M-2 were produced with the direct percussion. The studied Early Holocene industries of the Sosruko Rockshelter differ significantly from the partly synchronous industries of the North-Western Caucasus. The studied tradition had presumably local distribution. It finds analogy in the lithic industries of Layer 7 of Horizons 1-4 of the Badynoko Rockshelter (the Elbrus region). The correlation between the emergence of the simplest mode of the pressure blademaking in the Elbrus region in the Early Holocene and the distribution of the innovation in the neighboring regions is disputable. The possibility of the independent invention of the pressure blademaking in the Elbrus region cannot be completely rejected. On the contrary, the Elbrus Early Holocene industries could have been the source of the Mode 1 pressure technique distribution in the South Caucasus.

5. Publisher Organizing agency, location Daghestan Federal Research Centre
6. Contributor Sponsor(s) The research was supported by RFBR grant No. 20-09-00388
7. Date (DD-MM-YYYY) 26.07.2023
8. Type Status & genre Peer-reviewed Article
8. Type Type
9. Format File format PDF 
(Rus), PDF 
(Eng)
10. Identifier Uniform Resource Identifier https://caucasushistory.ru/2618-6772/article/view/1914
10. Identifier Digital Object Identifier (DOI) 10.32653/CH192414-434
11. Source Title; vol., no. (year) History, Archeology and Ethnography of the Caucasus; Vol 19, No 2 (2023)
12. Language English=en ru
13. Relation Supp. Files Fig. 1. The Sosruko Rockshelter. The layer M-1. 1-4, 7, 9 –obsidian cores, 5, 6, 8 –obsidian core rejuvenation flakes, 10 – obsidian precore (10MB)
Fig. 1. The Sosruko Rockshelter. The layer M-1. Flint cores (4MB)
Fig. 3. The Sosruko Rockshelter. The layer M-1. 1, 2, 9 – obsidian microliths, 3-8, 10-34 – obsidian blades, bladelets and microbladelets (7MB)
Fig. 4. The Sosruko Rockshelter. The layer M-1. 1, 2 –refitted flint bladelets, 3 –flint microlith, 4-9, 11-24 –flint bladelets and microbladelets, 10 – retouched flint microbladelet (5MB)
Fig. 5. The Sosruko Rockshelter. The layer M-1. Thickness/ width ratio of blades, bladelets and microbladelets (74KB)
Fig. 6. The Sosruko Rockshelter. The layer M-1. A. The width of all flint and obsidian blades/bladelets/microblaedelets, Б. The width of flint and obsidian bladelets / microbladelets definetly / probably produced with pressure, B. The width of blades/bladelets/microbledelets produced with the pressure modes 1-5 according to: [15] (190KB)
Fig. 7. The Sosruko Rockshelter. The layer M-1. Schematized method of bladelet/microbladelet production (760KB)
Fig. 8. The Sosruko Rockshelter. The layer M-1. Reconstruction of the pressure rhythm of debitage (41KB)
Fig. 9. The Sosruko Rockshelter. The layer M-1. Heat treatment of flint. 1-flint core, 2,3 – crested bladelets. а – drawings, b – schematic drawings: light grey for the glossy flake scars, dark grey for the matt flake scars (2MB)
Fig. 10. The Sosruko Rockshelter. The layer M-2. Thickness/ width ratio of blades, bladelets and microbladelets (54KB)
Fig. 11. The Sosruko Rockshelter. The layer M-2. 1 – obsidian core rejuvenation flake, 2 –obsidian microlith, 12 – obsidian retouched blade, 13 –obsidian burin, 3-11, 14-17 – obsidian blades/bladelets/microbladelets (4MB)
14. Coverage Geo-spatial location, chronological period, research sample (gender, age, etc.)
15. Rights Copyright and permissions Copyright (c) 2023 Eskova D.K.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.