ARCHAEOLOGY

After 11 years of excavations, about 140 sq. m of the site have been examined. A total of 7407 stone artefacts associated with blank and tool production and rejuvenation have been recorded. Proportions between the major technological groups are following:

• cores - 144 artefacts (1.5 % all groups)
• tools - 530 artefacts (7.1 % all groups)
• blades and fragments - 1095 artefacts (1.5 % all groups)
• flakes - 1055 artefacts (14.2 % all groups)
• chips and fragments of small flakes - 4613 (62.3 % all groups)

The biggest tool group is made up of burins, consisting of 117 specimens (22.2 % of all retouched tools), with the smallest group being end-scrapers (30 specimens it is 5.7 % of all retouched tools). In order of proportion are the groups: pointes à cran - 92 specimens (17.4 %), backed points and blades - 83 specimens (15.7 %), retouched blades - 76 specimens (14.4 %) and Kostienki knives - 56 (10.6 %).

Kostienki knife

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Retouched flakes, end scrapers, notched tools, combined tools, truncations, perforators, and side scrapers are a small group representing less than 10% of all retouched tools. The high number of shouldered points (pointes à cran) some of them of Kostienki type in comparison with other groups in the tool inventory must be pointed out. It could be the result of specific functions at the site (killing and butchering of mammoths) that required a large quantity of hunting weapons and cutting tools; despite this specific functions, presence of the large number of debitage products indicate that the complete operational chaine has been performed in site. Presence of pointes à cran, Kostienki knives, backed points, and blades distinguish the horizon as eastern Gravettian.