Use of limestone raw materials in the Ural Upper Palaeolithic based on the materials of the cave Balatukai site

The cave Balatukai is located in the Burzyan region of Bashkortostan (53°01 N, 57°01 E). During the study of the cave, the authors identified 5 cultural layers. The two lower cultural layers date back to the Upper Paleolithic (11,900 and 13450-13770 BP). For these cultural layers, it is typical to use local crystallized limestone as a raw material for producing cores, flakes and tools. These products are no different from those of flint and jasper. Numerous artifacts from limestone and calcite were discovered at 7 cave monuments of the Southern Urals. The largest set is collected in the Shulgan-Tash (Kapova) cave. Comparison of these collections demonstrates that in the sanctuaries the technology of splitting limestone and calcite is poorer and the form of flakes and tools from limestone and calcite is rougher. The authors see the explanation of this fact, on the one hand, in the cult character of the splitting of the “ cave ” stone in the sanctuaries, and, on the other hand, in the absence of experience and skills in stone processing among visitors to cave sanctuaries, most likely children and adolescents. Obviously, the shortage of good raw materials caused the use of limestone in a mountainous terrain. Sufficiently widespread use of limestone in the Southern Urals is a bright regional feature within the Ural Upper Palaeolithic tradition. The composition of the fauna of birds, as well as of large and small mammals demonstrates that in the time of humans ' visits to the cave, open (steppe) landscapes with tree and shrub vegetation along river valleys and intermountain depressions dominated.