Stone beads from cultural layer VII of the Ushki I site in Kamchatka

The article presents technological analysis of stone beads in the Ushki culture of the Early Upper Palaeolithic in Kamchatka. The study used a collection of337 artifacts from cultural layer VII of the Ushki I site. Several groups of artifacts associated with different stages of bead production, such as raw material, flakes, blanks, performs, and finished products small and flat drilled beads of round, sub-square, subtriangular, oval, or subrectangular shape were identified. First stage of production was selecting and delivering suitable raw materials to the site. Mineral raw materials of volcanogenic and hydrothermal origin, probably delivered from the banks of watercourses flowing down from the Sredinny Range, were used for bead production. Second stage in production process was knapping or breaking the nodules of rock and selecting blanks with thin profiles and suitable dimensional characteristics. Third stage of production involved shaping of blanks using abrasive tools, fragmentation of blanks by sawing, and subsequentfinishing of the fragments by polishing. The final stage was biconical perforation of the preforms using a small diameter stone drill. The results of experimental use-wear analysis indicated two scenarios of using the ready beads in the Early Ushki culture. Approximately half of the beads of small rounded shape with a hole in the center were used as a part of compositions forming a unit of similar or different types of elements. About a quarter of the Ushki I beads, most of which were asymmetrical and had the hole shifted to an edge, were reliably identified as micro-pendants sewn on clothing.