Kostenki 17 tooth pendant
Pierced fox canine, 41,000 years old
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.
At Kostënki 17 Boriskovskii found a group of more than 40 pierced fox canines, probably from Arctic fox. Fox canines were frequently used to make pendants in the Upper Palaeolithic.
(Artefact housed at the Institute for the History of Material Culture [Palaeolithic Division], Saint Petersburg.)