Tracewear analysis and interpretation of worked sheep shoulder blades from golden horde towns

The paper discusses results of tracewear analysis of worked sheep shoulderblades, which come from occupation deposits dating to the second half of the 12th - early14th centuries found in a craftsmen's quarter in Bolgar. Technological processes used inworking sheep bones manually and with a lathe have been identified. Sequence of specificoperations and characteristics of relevant tools have been defined. Comparison of bonequantities and the number of blanks and finished goods, which are identified as tablets for writing, suggests a quite large production scale of these tablets in Bolgar. Informationon similarly worked ram shoulder blades from other towns of the Golden Horde is alsoanalyzed.