The engraved flint and specific features of raw material use at the eastern gravettian site Khotylevo 2A

The paper presents results regarding comprehensive case study of a largeseries of flint artifacts with engravings on the cortex (268 items) from the collectionof lithic industry from the Eastern Gravettian site of Khotylevo 2A on the Russian Plain.Engravings were identified on the cortex of all categories of artifacts of chipped flint, andnot only on tools or blades. Most of the engravings (probably all of them) were madeduring the first stage of debitage - before or after the preparation of the pre-cores. A strongcorrelation between the presence of engraving on cortex and the use of exogenous blackflint was established. Engraved blanks were not specifically preferred for productionof some types of tools. Spatial analysis didn’t reveal any zones used specifically forengraved flint debitage or the use of tools with engravings. The data obtained suggest twohypotheses: marking of valuable raw materials and engraving of the transported flint atsome point of logistic scheme.