Traditional forms of knives among the indigenous population of Kolyma and Chukotka: from stone to iron items

The article discusses the possible continuation of Sumnagin (Mesolithic) and Neolithic traditions of making bone and stone knives in the tools of the Yukagirs and Chukchi in the late XIXth and early XXth centuries. Relying on the works of Vladimir Jochelson and Vladimir Bogoraz, the author compares straight and curved, male and female iron knives. The Yukagirs and the Chukchi used Russian and Yakut knives along with the products of their own blacksmiths who copied the knives of newcomers and transferred some time-proven traditional forms onto the items made out of the new material.