The technological stage of bead productionfrom mammoth tusk at the upper paleolithic Sungir’ site

The subject of the present paper is technology of manufacturing ivory beadsfrom the collections of the open-air Upper Paleolithic Sungir’ site. Working with the Sungir’ collection, the author identified seven ivory flakes of similar morphology andsize. All these flakes are small, subrectangular in profile fragments of mammoth tusk.In scientific literature such items are known as truncated flakes. These linear preforms areassociated with the production of personal ornaments from mammoth task such as beadsand diadems. In addition to the truncated flakes, the collection also contains baguettesused to separate bead preforms; the collection also comprises bead preforms in variousproduction stages. The study demonstrated that a similar technology of making beadsfrom mammoth tusk was used across a large area extending from Western Europe toArctic Siberia in the early Upper Paleolithic.