Pages: 291-295

Barrow 5 of Nizhniaya Dobrinka II group contained a human interment attributed to the Donets Catacomb Graves Culture, with a copper chisel and a copper axe both equipped with wooden handles. The article presents an expert analysis undertaken in order to establish the tree species used to produce the handles. It also presents the applied method for identification of the tree species and the charcoal by microscopic markers. Hence, some new knowledge is offered about the raw resources of the early wood-working industry and its source, i. e. the local vegetation in the Lower Volga basin in the mid-III millennium B. C. Effectively, the axe handle was made of oak, and that of the chisel was made of elm wood.

Keywords: the Lower Volga Region, the Middle Bronze Age, the Donets Catacomb Graves Culture, wooden artefacts, identification of an archaeological ligneous sample

Information about author:

Lidia Soloviova (Moscow, Russian Federation). Institute of Archaeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Dmitry Ulyanov St., 19, Moscow, 117292, Russian Federation.
E-mail: [email protected]