Spatial context of the stone personal ornaments from cultural layer VI at the Ushki I site

The article provides preliminary results of the spatial reconstruction of human activity associated with the production and use of stone ornamentations from cultural layer VI of the Ushki I (Kamchatka) multi-layered site. When comparing the information obtained on the basis of analysis of the archaeological collection, as well as published and archival sources, we could compos and analyze a database in the context of 56 items. The study of the spatial context of ornamentations was aimed at establishing the patterns of their placement in the structure of the inhabited space, identifying the links between artifacts among themselves, various objects and structures. To do this, we relied on the data obtained by technological, functional, and spatial methods. We have found that most of the finished ornamentations, blanks, debitage, and nodules are associated with living spaces, where the production took place. The discovery of entire pieces of personal decor with traces of wear or fragmentation from use inside residential facilities may suggest that they were lost in everyday use. A series of finished pendants and blanks are confined to two collective children ’s burials in the cultural layer. In the burial complexes, finished adornments and blanks are arranged differently: single finds of pendants were noted in the chest and head of buried individuals, and blanks were placed in original bags along with abrasives and hunting tools. Preliminary analysis of use-wear traces on pendants from burials and the features of their location suggest their use as a kind of amulets worn on a thread or cord.