Bifacial tools from Okladnikov cave: technical and typological analysis

The article discusses data of the technical-typological analysis on bifacial tools from the Okladnikov Cave, the key site of the Altai Middle Paleolithic Sibiryachikha variant. The Okladnikov Cave is located in the low Altai Mountains, on the left bank of the Sibiryachikha River. The presence of planoconvex bifacial tools is a characteristic feature of the Okladnikov Cave lithic industry and the Sibiryachikha variant in general, which distinguishes it from other industries in the region. Bifacial tools comprise 4.5 % of the toolkit (0.4 % of the assemblage, excluding wastes). All bifacial tools (16 items) were analyzed using attribute and typological analyses and, the results obtained were supplemented by the chip pattern analysis brief data. The studied tools were also compared with bifacial tools from the Chagyrskaya Cave. The bifacial tools from the Okladnikov Cave are planoconvex, bifacially treated tools. The tools are trapezoidal, leaf- and segment-like with one or two blades. There is often a back on one of longitudinal edges. Some of the asymmetrical backed bifacial tools are morphologically similar to the European knives of the Keilmesser type. The main characteristics of bifacial tools from the Okladnikov Cave correspond to the planoconvex bifacial technology reconstructed in the Chagyrskaya Cave and to the bifacial tools of the Micoqian technocomplex. However, several differences are also distinguished. In particular, the smaller size, more intensive processing of the longitudinal edges, differences in the size and character of their backs. Morphological and technological differences can be explained by the amount and size of the raw material near the Okladnikov Cave, the type of blanks used, and the site function.