The flint tool collection from the Primorsky Severo-Zapadnoye settlement

Information on flint industries of the Bronze Age is very scarce and fragmented. This publication of a small collection made up of 75 items from the excavations of the Primorsky Severo-Zapadnoye settlement in the Crimea eliminates this gap to a certain extent. Most items analyzed are attributed to the tool assemblage of the Yamnaya (Catacomb?) culture with the only exception of a conical core and several bladelets which, in our view, are attributed to the Mesolithic or the Neolithic. The tracewear analysis has demonstrated that the set of stone tool functions covers a large area of household and economic activities. The tools include weapons, reaping tools, tools for treating products of animal origin (meat, hides/leather), tools for simple operations with wood and bone as well as nonorganic materials. On the whole, the collection demonstrates distinctive features of flint industries of the early metal period such as a mix of well-crafted items that required precise metric characteristics and a series of items with unstable morphology which were used to carry out everyday household works.