End-scrappers from the Troitskaya upper Paleolithic site (Krasnoyarsk reservoir)

This article analyzes end-scrapers of the lithic assemblage from the Troitskaya site (theMiddle Yenisei region). The Troitskaya site belongs to the final stage of the Kokorevo culture and was dated to the boundary between the Pleistocene and Holocene (9851 ± 109 BP (NSK/UGAMS) - 11,600-11,150 cal BP). The collection of end-scrapers consisted of 175 items, including 170 surface finds from the foreshore of the reservoir andfive end-scrapers from the cultural layer. Due to variety of their morphology, these end-scrappers could not be systematized using the typology proposed by Z.A. Abramova for the Late Paleolithic of the Yenisei region. Thus, these scrappers were divided into two large groups in accordance with the degree of processing and length of the working edge. The first group consisted of strongly modified tools with long working edges (circular end-scrapers, end-scrapers with the working edge reaching А or % of the perimeter). The second group included less modified tools with short working edge (end-scrapers with narrow working edge and angle end-scrapers). Comparative study of metric parameters in these two groups has shown that strongly modified scrapers were specially prepared types of tools and did not result from gradual reduction of less modified tools. Such great typological and morphological diversity could be explained by two reasons. First possible reason is gradual increase in sophistication of scrapers 'functions accompanied by greater variety of processed raw materials and methods of processing. The second reason is associated with the features of primary lithic reduction at the site, especially with the lack of standardized production of blank-flakes, which caused the diversity of morphology.