ACADEMIC JOURNAL
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ISSN 2542-1077 (Print) ISSN 1994-5973 (Online) |
Archeology |
Tarasov A. Yu. | Karelian Research Centre, Russian Academy of Sciences |
Summanen I. M. | Karelian Research Centre, Russian Academy of Sciences |
Keywords: lithic industry chopping tools Eneolithic Neolithic Karelia Estonia Finland geochemistry ICP-MS raw materials exchange |
Summary: The paper presents results of a geochemical investigation of the raw material for making stone chopping
tools of the so-called Russian Karelian type, which were actively used for exchange interactions of the peoples of the
North-Eastern Europe in the IV–III Millennia calBC. The study is based on the ICP-MS analyses of 54 samples from
different regions of Karelia, Finland and Estonia conducted in the analytical laboratory of the Karelian Research Centre
of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The investigation was aimed to confirm the suggested in the beginning of the XXth
proposition that these tools were produced in one manufacturing centre on the western shore of Lake Onega (the
outfall of Shuya River) and spread by exchange, with the aid of the modern geochemistry methods, which greatly
reduce the influence of the subjective human factor. The samples that were found at great distances from the known
workshops, including those found outside Karelia, were analyzed for the first time. The new data generally confirm the
idea that all certain tools of the Russian Karelian type regardless of their discovery place originate from Shuya centre,
and the raw material for this centre was taken from the volcanic greenstone rocks (“metatuff”) deposits that can be found in the vicinity. The study is well in line with the investigations of the organization of the Prehistoric exchange in the North Western Europe which are actively being carried out nowadays. |
Displays: 519; |