Kostenki 17 bladelet core

Flint bladelet core, 41,000 years old

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Kostënki 17 is among the most important archaeological sites for understanding the very first modern humans in Eastern Europe. Primarily excavated by P.I. Boriskovskii in 1953 and 1955, the site’s lower layer contained a rich archaeological assemblage of worked flint and bone, pendants and animal bones.

The main stone-working activity at Kostënki 17 was apparently the creation of bladelets with straight profiles. These bladelets were produced using a “burin-core” technique, detaching them from the edge of a much larger blade. The shape of the above artefact is therefore determined by it being used to create something else, and not because it has been shaped for use as a tool itself.

(Artefact housed at the Institute for the History of Material Culture [Palaeolithic Division], Saint Petersburg.)