Tarasov, A. Yu., Summanen, I. M. CHOPPING TOOLS OF THE RUSSIAN KARELIAN TYPE IN KARELIA AND NORTH-EASTERN EUROPE. GEOCHEMICAL ASPECT. Proceedings of Petrozavodsk State University. 2022;44(8):8–19. DOI: 10.15393/uchz.art.2022.830


Archeology


CHOPPING TOOLS OF THE RUSSIAN KARELIAN TYPE IN KARELIA AND NORTH-EASTERN EUROPE. GEOCHEMICAL ASPECT

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.




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