Kostenki 17 retouched bladelet Kostenki 6 Streletskian point Kostenki 17 tooth pendant Kostenki 17 pendant Kostenki 17 endscraper Kostenki 17 core Kostenki 17 bladelet core Kostenki 17 bladelet core 2 Kostenki 17 blade Kostenki 14 etched bone Kostenki 14 bladelet core Kostenki 13 shouldered point Kostenki 12 scraper Kostenki 12 retouched blade Kostenki 12 burin on truncation Kostenki 12 bladelet core Kostenki 12 biface Kostenki 12 biface fragment Kostenki 12 Streletskian point Kostenki 1 bladelet core Kostenki 1 Streletskian point

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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 site’s lithic assemblage is dominated by burin-cores that have been worked to create bladelets with straight profiles. We know that at least some of these bladelets were further shaped (retouched) for use. Two bladelets from the site have been retouched into a type referred to as “Dufour-type” bladelets (so-called after the French site of Grotte Dufour), including this one. This tool type is especially important for understanding the link between sites, and has been found on sites of this age across Europe and beyond. It is currently thought that these bladelets were part of a multi-component hunting kit.

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