Russian archaeologists have studied the “matryoshka doll” made from animal bones found in Western Siberia. This was reported by the press service of the RNF.
The artifact was found at the Volchya Griva archaeological site in the Novosibirsk region. It is famous for the presence of numerous mammoth bones and other animals buried during the last glaciation period. Additionally, stone tools are found at Wolf’s Mane, although the nearest stone deposit is 90 kilometers away – suggesting that ancient hunter-gatherers brought the tools from afar.
In 2020, scientists from the University of Tomsk and colleagues from other institutions discovered an area with a particularly dense arrangement of stone tools (about 1,400 units per square meter), as well as a layer of ash. This suggests that a large long-term site was located at this location 23,000 years ago, where people processed skins and made tools. In addition, archaeologists discovered a unique bone object that scientists have not yet met with analogues. A kind of “matryoshka” because it looks like a Russian folk toy made of nested dolls.
A fragment of the skull, lower jaw and tusk of an arctic fox, as well as a rib of a large mammal, was inserted into a part of the femur of a mammoth with an artificially carved rectangular niche 8 cm deep. The bones and teeth of the foxes were woven into a niche with a mixture of sand, clay and copious amounts of ash. The scientists analyzed the cracks and chips in the structures, focusing their experiments on breaking the fresh bones of modern elephants. The femur probably belonged to a young mammoth that died recently. The excavation was carried out using a variety of tools, including a large stone chipper and a fine bone tool with a working fragment about 10 mm wide. In addition, the mammoth bone has characteristic flakes that indicate that it was originally used as a passive retoucher – a tool in which ancient people processed stone tool cavities. Cut marks were found on the skull of the arctic fox, which may have occurred when skin was removed from the animal’s carcass.
Experts have no knowledge of the purpose of such an artifact. Presumably, it either served as a ritual object or acted as a totem, a children’s toy, or a simple trinket.
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Source: Gazeta
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