A Mammoth Tusk with Representational Engraving from the Yana Complex of Sites and Its Archaeological Context
A Mammoth Tusk with Representational Engraving from the Yana Complex of Sites and Its Archaeological Context
doi:10.17746/1563-0110.2025.53.3.008-022
V.V. Pitulko1, 2 and E.Y. Pavlova3 1Institute for the History of Material Culture, Russian Academy of Sciences, Dvortsovaya nab. 18A, St. Petersburg, 191181, Russia 2Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (Kunstkamera), Russian Academy of Sciences, Universitetskaya nab. 3, St. Petersburg, 199034, Russia 3Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute, Beringa 38, St. Petersburg, 199397, Russia
Mass manufacture of non-utilitarian objects, which are informational in essence, is a characteristic feature of the Upper Paleolithic. A unique sample of such items (pendants, beads, decorated diadems, and bracelets) comes from the Yana complex of sites. These items testify to advanced views of identity, held by people of the Eastern Siberian Arctic ~32 ka BP. These views formed a three-level information system (“friend or foe” recognition, intra-group distinction, personal identification). A mammoth tusk with representational engraving takes a special place among such items. The drawing appears to be a mnemonic record, possibly with mythological content. Its archaeological context reveals the complex social behavior of the Yana site dwellers, in whose advanced mentality animistic beliefs, specifically the wolf cult, played a special role. Such a cult presupposed the existence of complex collective rites in the form of shamanism. One of those rites is apparently depicted in the engraving on the mammoth tusk. Its composition attests to the knowledge of perspective—one of the earliest instances if this kind. Also, the drawing represents motion, evidencing the artist’s cognitive level and technical skill. Apparently, the evolution of the Upper Paleolithic people’s cognitive capacities passed through certain stages, marked by creative and technical achievements, and documented by artifacts such as the Yana engraving. This representation helps to see the world as viewed through the eyes of ancient hunters inhabiting the Eastern Siberian Arctic.
Keywords: Upper Paleolithic, personal ornaments, mammoth ivory bracelets, complex social and symbolic behavior, information system, mammoth tusk with representational engraving, decorated mammoth tusk, rituals.
