STONE INVENTORY OF THE CHES-TYI-YAG NEOLITHIC SETTLEMENT

Abstract

Ches-tyi-yag is the most important defining site of the Middle Neolithic Lower Ob region with ceramics of the Chestyag cultural type. The collection of stone inventory from five dwellings and two buildings, investigated by excavations, is distinguished by cultural homogeneity, seriality of mor¬photypes of tools and debitage. The article for the first time analyzes in detail the collection of flint inventory of the settlement (1 139 items) from the standpoint of technical, morphological and typological approaches. Grinded tools and abrasive tools are not considered. In all dwellings, the same varieties of flint were used, quartz products are rare. The industry is characterized as flaking: stadial concrete-situational direct percussion is combined with bipolar technique. A few blades are more often irregular. Among the tools, scrapers of various shapes and flakes with edge retouching predominate, designed for performing cutting, scraping, sawing functions. Small chisel-shaped tools are typical, there are perforators and carvers, and combined tools are frequent. Arrowheads on large irregular blades carry a double-sided edge retouching. The technique of incisor chipping was not used. The bipolar technique was also used to form the blades and rear parts of the tools (undercutting, thinning and reworking the implements), as well as for fragmentation and re-registration of finished tools. The flint inventory of the Ches-tyi-yag settlement according to the technique of splitting, of course, belongs to the circle of the taiga Neolithic of Western Siberia, representing the original flint flake industry with a bright typologically pronounced tool set.