"Utyuzhki" in the materials of the archaeological site Kordon Miassovo 1 in the mountain-forest Trans-Urals

It is the first time that the transversal grooved artifacts, better known in the literature as «utyuzhki» («small ironings»), found in the layers of the archaeological site Kordon Miassovo 1, are introduced to the scientific world. The archaeological site is located in the Chelyabinsk region on the shores of Big Miassovo lake in the forest zone of the eastern spurs of the Urals. The materials of Kordon Miassovo 1 are multi-temporal and cover the period from at least the Neolithic era to the XIII-XV centuries AD. Transversal grooved artifacts from the collection of Kordon Miassovo 1 are represented by three whole products and one broken in half product. Three of these objects can be definitely included in the category of classic «utyuzhki» by all morphological characteristics (shape, ornament). The fourth artifact, also with a transversal groove, is less typical morphologically: it is not elegant in its shape, devoid of ornament, there is a visible negligence (incompleteness) in its manufacture. It more closely resembles an object not of cult, but of economic (household) purpose, but it is difficult to determine what its function was. The stratigraphic occurrence of the third of the described «utyuzhki», close to the vessel of the Poludenskaya culture of the Late Neolithic era, uniquely determines the time of its existence. There are few such indisputable facts of the connection of «utyuzhki» with specific archaeological complexes (cultures) in the Trans-Urals. It is really difficult to date the remaining exemplars, however, they should most likely also be correlated with the Neo-Eneolithic stage of the functioning of the archaeological site. The traces in the form of chips, scratches and potholes on the products, as well as the presence of «utyuzhki» in the layers of short-term seasonal sites may indicate the utilitarian purpose of these artifacts.