Pages: 181-197

The paper deals with the reconstruction of technology used to produce ostrich eggshell beads found on the Final Pleistocene sites Ust-Kyakhta III (excavated in 1976, 1978) and Ust-Kyakhta XVII (excavated in 1990—1992) in Western Transbaikalia. The sites are thought to belong to the same culture. The similar objects made from the same raw material and also on soft ornamental stone were discovered on the other sites of the region, such as Studenoye II, Sukhotino IV, Podzvonkaya. This element of material culture is specific for this period, but the technological aspect of personal ornaments manufacture for this category of objects on this territory wasn’t thoroughly studied before. That is why the purpose of our research was to determine technological chain of ostrich eggshell bead production, given some gaps in the studied collection, specifically a lack of preforms. This work was dedicated to reveal the most probable technological chains, which, in the same time, let us obtain some replicas, which are most similar to the archaeological pieces. The following chain was indicated as an optimal one to obtain specific morphological features, determined on the beads of Ust-Kyakhta XVII: fragmentation of eggshell in order to obtain small pieces, than perforation with the help of bow drilling by means of pointed hafted stone tools and, finally, grinding and polishing to smoothen the preform.

Keywords: Western Transbaikalia, Final Pleistocene, personal ornaments, ostrich eggshell, experiment, technology, traceology, biconical perforation, grinding

Information about authors:

Lidia Zotkina (Novosibirsk, Russian Federation). Candidate of Historical Sciences. Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Akademik Lavrentiev Ave., 17, Novosibirsk, 630090, Russian Federation
E-mail: [email protected]
Galina Pavlenok (Novosibirsk, Russian Federation). Candidate of Historical Sciences. Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Akademik Lavrentiev Ave., 17, Novosibirsk, 630090, Russian Federation
E-mail: [email protected]
Vasilii Tashak (Ulan-Ude, Russian Federation). Candidate of Historical Sciences. Institute for Mongolian, Buddhist and Tibetan Studies of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Sakhyanova St., 6, Ulan-Ude, 670047, Republic of Buryatia, Russian Federation
E-mail: [email protected]