Pages: 347-366 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.55086/sp241347366
According to a widely held view the lithic raw material sources of the Mesolithic industry of Northeastern Fennoscandia were limited by quartz, which is a breakable material unsuitable for blade production. It is thought that the nature of the raw material predetermined the flake-based character of the industry. Rare blades and blade tools are considered imports. However, twenty one Early Mesolithic assemblages with varying numbers of blades have been identified in Northern Fennoscandia recently. The majority of the blades display features diagnostic of pressure and indirect percussion techniques. Similar artefacts were found in the materials of the Butovskaya, Kunda and Veretje cultures. The appearance of such artefacts in Northern Fennoscandia is seen as a result of migrations from the East European Plain. Analysis of the assemblages of the Lovozero 2—6 sites, located in the inner part of the Kola Peninsula, revealed blades (including pressure blades), their fragments, blade tools and core-platform rejuvenation flakes made of flint and local silicified rocks. In addition, information on at least ten sites with flint blades excavated in Northern Karelia in the 1970—1990s can be found in the literature. One more site, Dyalanoja 2, was excavated in 2016 on the Kem’ River. This data calls for a revision of the old view that the Mesolithic industry of Northeastern Fennoscandia was purely quartz- and “flake”-based. Furthermore, new sites have been mapped in underexplored areas along the so-called «eastern» route of settling of the region, bridging the gap between its initial and final points.
Keywords: Northern Fennoscandia, peopling, Mesolithic, chert, “eastern” blade technology
Information about author:
Anton Murashkin (Petrozavodsk, Russian Federation). Institute of Language, Literature and History, Karelian Research Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Pushkinskaya St., 11, Petrozavodsk, 185910, Republic of Karelia, Russian Federation
E-mail: [email protected]
ORCID: 0000-0001-7902-9305