Half-finished grooved cheek-piece from the vicinity of Chelyabinsk

Abstract

The article describes a new find of half-finished grooved cheek-piece in the Southern Urals. The grooved cheek-pieces are rare finds and half-finished ones are even rarer. That is why the new find has permitted us to investigate the technological details of their making, i.e. the first operations which traces on finished products are largely destroyed by subsequent operations and often by traces of use. The author suggests why the technological process was broken, because of which the workpiece was left. The new cheek-piece is described in comparison with other few half-finished grooved cheek-pieces from different regions of the Eurasian steppe and forest steppe. The author attempts to determine the place of the new cheek-piece in the typology of similar products and to outline its chronology.

Keywords

• grooved cheek-piece
• bone
• workpiece
• cutting
• polished
• trace evidence
• manufacturing technology