Pressure Flakers of Late Neolithic Forest Hunter-Gatherer-Fishers of Eastern Europe and Their Remote Counterparts

Abstract

The remarkable group of tools was detected among the hunter-gatherer-fishers’ archaeological materials of the East European Plain central part dated around 3500–2700 BC. The so-called “crooked items” were initially interpreted as ritual phallic depictions, but now after conducting a more detailed analysis of their morphology, technology, and use-wear, it became clear that we deal with pressure flakers used to process flint tools. The most astonishing fact is that the straight parallel to these tools exists, coming from the opposite side of the globe, namely, the Bering Strait region – Kamchatka, Chukotka, and Alaska, where the same tools are known quite well both in archaeological and ethnographical collections. In this study, we discuss the results of use-wear analysis of both handles and removable tips from the Central Russian settlements of Moscow, Ivanovo, and Yaroslavl regions dated the second half of the fourth to the beginning of the third millennium BC.

Keywords

• pressure flaker
• east european plain
• late neolithic age
• hunter-gatherer-fishers
• antler