Ivory Figurines and the Symbolic Context of a Paleolithic Dwelling at Kovrizhka IV on the Lower Vitim River, Eastern Siberia
Ivory Figurines and the Symbolic Context of a Paleolithic Dwelling at Kovrizhka IV on the Lower Vitim River, Eastern Siberia
DOI: 10.17746/1563-0110.2018.46.4.003-012
A.V. Tetenkin1, O.V. Zhmur2, E.I. Demonterova3, E.V. Kaneva4, and N.V. Salnaya5 1Irkutsk National Research Technical University, Lermontova 83, Irkutsk, 664074, Russia 2Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (Kunstkamera), Russian Academy of Sciences, Universitetskaya nab. 3, St. Petersburg, 199034, Russia 3Institute of the Earth’s Crust, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, Lermontova 128, Irkutsk, 664033, Russia 4Vinogradov Institute of Geochemistry, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, Favorskogo 1А, Irkutsk, 664033, Russia 5Schmidt Institute of Physics of the Earth, Russian Academy of Sciences, Bolshaya Gruzinskaya 10, bldg. 1, Moscow, 123242, Russia
One of the most important recent discoveries made on the Vitim River (Baikal-Patom plateau, Eastern Siberia), is that of a Paleolithic dwelling at Kovrizhka IV, cultural layer 6. Excavations here revealed markers of symbolic activity, including two anthropomorphic ivory figurines. These were recovered in a context suggestive of non-utilitarian activity: including with an alternating boulder and slab perimeter, with ocher found on lithics and one figurine. One figurine depicts a downward-pointing angle, which may represent the pubes, as in female figurines. Stylistically, this figure resembles Neolithic and Bronze Age anthropomorphic figurines from the Cis-Baikal region. Its head, painted with ocher, was directed eastwards. The second ivory figurine has a contour loosely reminiscent of the human body, and it shows no engraving. Near the head of the figurine, a cluster of ocher pieces was found. A radiocarbon date from the dwelling places its construction ca 15.7 ka BP. These two figurines, along with a fragment of a graphite pendant from cultural layer 4, are the first objects of portable art to be found in the Paleolithic of the Baikal-Patom plateau and Vitim basin. The first figurine is thus far the only unambiguously anthropomorphic Upper Paleolithic representation from northeastern Siberia.
