Complex of throwing weapons from the teenagers’ burial in the upper palaeolithic site of Sungir

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Abstract

The Sungir station is a site of the early Upper Palaeolithic period of Eastern Europe, with an absolute age of 35–29 kya. In 1969, O. N. Bader found a paired burial of boys with numerous personal adornments on the bodies and 15 intact pieces of weapon at the site. The researcher divided those into daggers, spears and throwing spears – javelins. Our study of the weapons showed that they differ not only in length, but also in the way the ends were made. The weaponry in question includes 1) javelins with double-edged ends (2 items); 2) spears, javelins and daggers with beveled proximal ends and awl-shaped distal ends (13 items). The study confirmed that daggers are an independent category of weapons, they served as tips of stuff weapons. Weight characteristics and determination of the gravity centre in spears and javelins showed that they could equally be used as throwing weapons. The composition of weapons types for each buried person was the same. It included tips and throwing weapons with double-edged ends and an awl-shaped striking part and, apparently, it reflected the hunting peculiarities of the Sungir ancient inhabitants.

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G. A. Khlopachev

Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (Kunstkamera) of the RAS; Institute of Archaeology of the RAS

Author for correspondence.
Email: gakmae@yandex.ru
Russian Federation, Saint Petersburg; Moscow

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2. Fig. 1. The double burial of adolescents at the Sungir site (north view). Photo from the personal archive of O.N. Bader. Scientific and Subject-Field Archive of the Institute of Archaeology of the RAS

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3. Fig. 2. Weapons made of mammoth tusk found in the double burial. Hereinafter – the State Vladimir-Suzdal Museum-Reserve

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4. Fig. 3. Stuff weapons with double-edged ends from the burials of boys

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5. Fig. 4. Stuff weapons with a beveled proximal end and an awl-shaped distal from the burial of the older boy

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6. Fig. 5. Stuff weapons with beveled proximal end and awl-shaped distal end from the burial of the younger boy

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7. Fig. 6. Heads of stuff weapons with beveled attachment area and elongated tip

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8. Fig. 7. Flint flakes from the western part of the double burial, attached along the body of the stuff weapon near its distal end

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9. Fig. 8. Plan-diagram showing the location of different types of stuff weapons in the double burial pit. Colour designations: blue – weapons with beveled proximal ends and awl-shaped distal ends; red – weapons with double-edged ends; yellow – tips; black – reconstruction of wooden javelins by O.N. Bader. Drawing by the author (based on Bader, 1998. Fig. 76)

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