Mesolithic bone arrowheads from Ivanovskoye 7 (central Russia): Technology of the manufacture and use-wear traces

A multilayer peat bog site Ivanovskoye 7 is situated in Central Russia, 120 km to the north from Moscow. Early, middle and late Mesolithic cultural layers with rich bone industry were excavated. Various arrowheads were discovered in Mesolithic layers. Most of them were made from elk long bones. All arrowheads including fragments preforms and blanks were studied with the help of a stereomicroscope with magnifications from 3.6 to 119 times. The following chain of operations was established in the manufacture of bone arrowheads from Mesolithic layers of Ivanovskoye 7 site. Elk long bones were soaked in water for softening, after it long narrow splinters were removed with the use of the “groove and splinter” technique. Then splinters were turned into preforms with the help of crude scraping or whittling. Fine whittling and scraping was used for shaping the preform into arrowhead. At this stage various details such as barbs, grooves, slots for inserts were made with the help of grooving, sawing, carving, whittling and scraping. Some arrowheads were decorated with engraved ornamentation. Final treatment included grinding with fine grained abrasive slabs and bright polishing with hide. Slots of composite arrowheads were filled with glue and heated. When the glue became soft, inserts were put inside these slots. Of special interest is the final treatment of one long needle shaped arrowhead with the help of the turning lathe. Use-wear traces include rounding or smashing of the tip of the point and polishing running from the point gradually disappearing accompanied by fine linear traces running from the tip along the axis of the arrowhead or at acute angles to it, indicating hitting rather soft slightly dirty material. Coarse linear traces in the shape of grooves running from the point, resembling traces on soil digging tools indicate hitting the ground when the arrow missed the target. This research showed the skill of Mesolithic inhabitants of Ivanoskoye 7 site in the manufacture of bone arrowheads, which they used for hunting various animals. Numerous bones of the latter from Mesolithic layers confirm this.