Pages: 315-344

The main set of bone and antler tools of the Mesolithic Butovo culture, that was spread in the Volga-Oka region of Russia, emerged as early as the first half of the Preboreal period. It contains various arrow and spear heads, knives, daggers, awls, wedges, fishing hooks, as well as needle cases, pendants, etc. Its further development was characterised by the replacement of several types of weapons and tools with other types of the same function. The stable traditions in the manufacture and use of bone tools co-existed with innovations. Some of the latter became the basis for the development of new traditions, while some other were abandoned and have never appeared again. A number of bone/antler tools and tool-making traditions characteristic of the Butovo culture are found in the inventories of the Early Neolithic Upper Volga culture, which is thought to have formed on the basis of the final Butovo sites. It was in no small measure due to the existence of the highly developed bone industry, that the Botovo culture people sucessfully adapted to the changing enviromental conditions of their time.

Keywords: Volga-Oka region, Butovo culture, Mesolithic, bone industry, traditions, innovations

Information about author:

Mikhail Zhilin (Moscow, Russia). Doctor of Historical Sciences. Institute of Archaeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Dmitriya Ulyanova Str., 19, Moscow, 117036 , Russia 
E-mail: [email protected]