Painted artifacts from Ushki V (Kamchatka peninsula)

It is quite relevant to launch a new stage in examination of the artifacts retrieved from the Ushki V site (Kamchatka Peninsula) as part of the exercise to describe forms of sign behavior identified by distinctive features of archaeological materials associated with paleoart in the spatial and chronological contexts and a possibility to perform in-depth microscopic analysis of artifact assemblages. The assemblage in question is the earliest at the site, it dates to 13,000-12,000 years ago. The study applied methods of formal-morphological and technological analyses; sampling was drawn with the help of tracewear analysis. When pigment was identified on the artifacts, its composition was determined by the SEM-EDX method. Ethnographic materials and the spectral composition of pigments suggested the nature of additives that were of organic origin. A set of series artifacts, evidence of their artificial dyeing, presence of chisels as likely tools for making tattoos are elements of the sign systems of one-type traces and signs that are interconnected. Such systems serve to support individual and collective communication and information dissemination processes, being an evidence of a sophisticated organizational structure of this archaeological culture in the final stage of Pleistocene in Kamchatka.