Pages: 193-201 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.55086/sp263193201

The article presents the attribution and use-wear analysis of a stone grinding slab from the Paleometal Age settlement of Manzherok-3 in the lower Katun mountain valley. Such grinding slabs are typical of settlements and hillforts in Northern Altai dating from the mid-1st millennium BC to the first half of the 1st millennium AD. Traceological study showed that the artifact was an independent tool: a portable slab used to grind herbaceous plant materials. Earlier analyses of another grinding implement from Manzherok-3, aimed at identifying plant starches and phytoliths, revealed the processing of wild plant tubers, including Erythronium sibiricum and Paeonia anomala L. These tubers had been traditionally gathered by local populations in the Altai Mountains as wild food resources until the ethnographic period. Wear traces on the newly discovered artifact likewise indicate the processing of wild herbaceous plants rather than domesticated crops, linking the tool to a foraging rather than a food-producing economy. Since the object was not used to grind cultivated cereals, its function provides further evidence for the importance of gathering in the economy of early nomads in Northern Altai.

Keywords: Mountain Altai, Paleometal Age, stone tools for grinding, “grain grinders”, use-wear analysis

Information about authors:

Andrey Borodovsky (Novosibirsk, Russian Federation). Doctor of Historical Sciences, Assistant Professor. 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]
ORCID: 0000-0002-6312-1024

Pavel Volkov (Novosibirsk, Russian Federation). Doctor 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]
ORCID: 0000-0001-9303-4565