Generate QR code
Open Access
Subscription Access
Ivory Bead Ornaments from the Sungir Paleolithic Site
https://doi.org/10.17746/1563-0110.2025.53.3.036-044
Abstract
This article presents the results of a study of composite ornaments made of ivory beads from burials of a man and two adolescents, discovered by O.N. Bader at Sungir, a site dating to the Final Early Upper Paleolithic (30–26 ka BP). The burials are excessively rich in such ornaments, which were made by stringing many beads on a sinew or thread made of organic material. Strings of beads preserved in burials and retaining the order of constituent elements were used as a source for identifying typologically meaningful forms of beads. Owing to the alternation of elements of various shapes or similar in form but made from different blanks, a specific rhythmic structure was generated. The composition of strings suggests that eight types of ivory bead were employed. Two main techniques of stringing were used: by isolating the central group of beads, and by arranging them in the order of size gradually decreasing from one end to the other. The search for cultural parallels has revealed that the principle of combining different types of beads to create strings was similar to that used at contemporaneous sites in southern Germany dating to the Final Aurignacian.
Keywords
Supporting agencies: This study was supported by the Russian Science Foundation, Project № 24-28-00436 «Multipart Mammoth Tusk Adornments Found in the Burials of the Sungir Upper Paleo lithic Settlement: Forms, Bead Manufacturing Technology, Beads Stringing Patterns, Cultural and Chronological Analogies» (https://rscf.ru/project/24-28-00436/). The authors express their deep gratitude to the members of the RSSDA Laboratory (Moscow) Y.M. Svoisky, E.V. Romanenko, A.N. Uralskaya, and E.S. Komakova for creating 3D-models of Sungir beads and software for their study, as well as for their assistance in preparing illustrations.
About the Authors
G. A. Khlopachev
Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (Kunstkamera), Russian Academy of Sciences
Russian Federation
Russian Federation
Khlopachev G.A., Department Head
Universitetskaya nab. 3, St. Petersburg, 199034
K. N. Gavrilov
Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (Kunstkamera), Russian Academy of Sciences; Institute of Archaeology, Russian Academy of Sciences
Russian Federation
Russian Federation
Gavrilov K.N., Senior Researcher
Universitetskaya nab. 3, St. Petersburg, 199034;
Dm. Ulyanova 19, Moscow, 117292
L. O. Bazilevich
Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (Kunstkamera), Russian Academy of Sciences; State Vladimir and Suzdal Museum-Reserve
Russian Federation
Russian Federation
Bazilevich L.O., Junior Researcher; Department Head
Universitetskaya nab. 3, St. Petersburg, 199034;
Bolshaya Moskovskaya 43, Vladimir, 600000
A. Y. Saifieva
Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (Kunstkamera), Russian Academy of Sciences
Russian Federation
Russian Federation
Saifieva A.Y., Lead Curator
Universitetskaya nab. 3, St. Petersburg, 199034
References
1. Bader O.N. 1966 Arkheologiya stoyanki Sungir. In Verkhnepaleoliticheskaya stoyanka Sungir, ch. 1. Moscow: Nauka, pp. 7–41. (Trudy GIN; iss. 162).
2. Bader O.N. 1978 Sungir: Verkhnepaleoliticheskaya stoyanka. Moscow: Nauka.
3. Bader O.N. 1998 Sungir: Paleoliticheskiye pogrebeniya. In Pozdne-paleo liticheskoye poseleniye Sungir (pogrebeniya i okruzhayushchaya sreda). Moscow: Nauch. mir, pp. 5–164.
4. Conard N. 2003 Eiszeitlicher Schmuck auf der Schwäbischen Alb. In Eiszeitschmuck: Status und Schönheit. Blaubeuren: Urgeschichtliches Museum, pp. 15–50. (Urgeschichtliches Museum Blaubeuren; Museumsheft 6).
5. Eiszeitschmuck: Status und Schönheit. 2003 S. Kolbl, N.J. Conard (eds.). Blaubeuren: Urgeschichtliches Museum. (Urgeschichtliches Museum Blaubeuren; Museumsheft 6).
6. Gavrilov K.N., Khlopachev G.A. 2025 Tipy personalnykh ukrasheniy i struktura pogrebalnogo kompleksa Sungirskoy stoyanki: Khronologicheskiye analogii. KSIA, iss. 278 (in press).
7. Gavrilov K.N., Kuzmin Y.V., Chechushkova D.I. 2024 Radiouglerodnyi vozrast pogrebeniy stoyanki Sungir: Arkheologicheskiy kontekst i problema verifikatsii dannykh. Rossiyskaya arkheologiya, No. 4: 17–33.
8. Khlopachev G.A. 2006 Bivnevye industrii verkhnego paleolita Vostochnoi Evropy. St. Petersburg: Nauka.
9. Khlopachev G.A. 2024 Kompleks metatelnogo vooruzheniya iz pogrebeniya podrostkov na verkhnepaleoliticheskoy stoyanke Sungir. Rossiyskaya arkheologiya, No. 4: 34–49.
10. Khlopachev G.A., Bazilevich L.O. 2024 Businy iz bivnya mamonta Sungirskoy paleoliticheskoy stoyanki: Formy i osobennosti ikh cheredovaniya v nabornyyh ukrasheniyakh. Camera praehistorica, No. 1: 24–47.
11. Poltoraus A.B., Kulikov E.E., Lebedeva I.A. 2000 Molekularnyi analiz DNK iz ostankov trekh individuumov so stoyanki Sungir (predvaritelnye itogi). In Homo sungirensis: Verkhnepaleoliticheskiy chelovek: Ekologicheskiye i evolyutsionnye aspekty issledovaniya, T.I. Alekseeva, N.O. Bader (eds.). Moscow: Nauch. mir, pp. 351–358.
12. Scheer A. 1985 Elfenbeinanhänger des Gravettien in Süddeutschland. Archäologisches Korrespondenzblatt, Bd. 15: 269–285.
13. Sikora M., Seguin-Orlando A., Sousa V.C., Albrechtsen A., Korneliussen T., Ko A., Rasmussen S., Dupanloup I., Nigst P.R., Bosch M.D., Renaud G., Allentoft M.E., Margaryan A., Vasilyev S.V., Veselovskaya E.V., Borutskaya S.B., Deviese T., Comeskey D., Higham T., Manica A., Foley R., Meltzer D.J., Nielsen R., Excoffi er L., Lahr M.M., Orlando L., Willerslev E. 2017 Ancient genomes show social and reproductive behavior of early Upper Paleolithic foragers. Science, vol. 358 (6363): 659–662.
14. Stulova D.I. 2021 Zaleganiye skopleniy arkheologicheskogo materiala v raskope 3 stoyanki Sungir. Zapiski IIMK RAN, No. 24: 42–51.
15. White R. 1993 Technological and social dimensions of “Aurignacianage” body ornaments across Europe. In Before Lascaux: The Complex Record of the Early Upper Paleolithic. Boca Raton: CRC Press, pp. 277–299.
Review
For citations:
Khlopachev G.A., Gavrilov K.N., Bazilevich L.O., Saifieva A.Y. Ivory Bead Ornaments from the Sungir Paleolithic Site. Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia. 2025;53(3):36-44. https://doi.org/10.17746/1563-0110.2025.53.3.036-044
Views:
17
Email this article 