The carving has a feminine form, reminiscent of "Venus" figurines found from Siberia to the Pyrenees Posted on 12/02/2008 8:59:26 AM PST by BGHater
Rare artefacts from the late Stone Age have been uncovered in Russia.
The site at Zaraysk, 150km south-east of Moscow, has yielded figurines and carvings on mammoth tusks.
The finds also included a cone-shaped object whose function, the authors report in the journal Antiquity, "remains a puzzle".
Such artistic artefacts have been found in the nearby regions of Kostenki and Avdeevo, but this is the first such discovery at Zaraysk.
The Upper Palaeolithic is the latter part of the Stone Age, during which humans made the transition from functional tool-making to art and adornment.
The new artefacts, discovered by Hizri Amirkhanov and Sergey Lev of the Russian Academy of Sciences, include a mammoth rib inscribed with what appear to be three mammoths, a small bone engraved with a cross-hatch pattern, and two human figurines presumed to be female.
"The finds enrich the inventory of Upper Palaeolithic [portable] art and broaden the known distribution of specific types of art objects in the East European Upper Palaeolithic," Dr Lev told BBC News.
"In terms of the splendour and variety of its art pieces, Zaraysk is on a par with such famous sites as Kostenki and Avdeevo."
The carving has a feminine form, reminiscent of "Venus" figurines found from Siberia to the Pyrenees
This bison carved from mammoth ivory was found at Zaraysk in 2002
A bone fragment shows an "oblique cross" pattern of ornamentation
Three views of the mysterious cone-shaped object found at Zaraysk
(Excerpt) Read more at news.bbc.co.uk ...
Maybe for inv. Nice photos.
I think some form of each find has been posted before.
Hey! They had the Beatles back then too!
The “cone” shaped object looks like some sort of a grain-grinding wheel.
or a dresser drawer knob...
Bingo! That is what I was thinking.
The “cone†shaped object is actually a frustum. But the so called slanted cross pattern looks much more like the Ogham writing of the Scots and Picts. I love it when these folks decide they know exactly what a civilization was like based on a few meager remains. Omniscience is such a nice thing to posses.
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Thanks BGHater. Nice carvings. |
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