The bone artifacts of the Ust-Belaya burial ground, and some issues of cultural interaction in the Neolithic on the North of the Far East

Abstract

The materials of the Ust-Belaya site and burial ground served as a basis for distinguishing the Ust-Belaya culture of Inland Chukotka by N.N. Dikov. However, the results of investigations of the burial ground were partially published, without morphometric and statistical description of the materials at the barrows, including bone inventory. This work is dedicated to analyze the bone inventory from the burial mound 15 and to identify on its basis the cultural and historical links with archaeological materials of cultures of the Late Neolithic — the Early Metal Age in the North of the Far East and the Pacific North. Based on the results of the technical-typological analysis of bone tools, classification elements of the types of bone tools (often cultural markers) were singled out; the economic life of the Ust-Belaya population has been partially reconstructed (namely, the orientation to inland hunting), the question of the presence of harpoons in graves has been considered; the relations (based on comparative morphological analysis) with coastal cultures of the Koryaks, Itelmen, Aleuts and Eskimos are identified, with the latter showing the greatest similarity in the types of bone inventory. Thus, a detailed analysis of the artifacts of the Ust-Belaya Site provides valuable information on the Late Neolithic of the Inland Chukotka.

Keywords

• Ust-Belaya burial ground
• mound 15
• Chukotka
• the Neolithic
• the Paleometal Age
• the Chukchi
• the Eskimos
• bone and antler tools
• technical and typological analysis