Daggers-inserts and hunting knives in the Mesolithic of Eastern Europe

The paper is dedicated to the study of daggers-inserts and hunting knives which were an important element of weapon sets used by hunters who lived in the forest belt of Eastern Europe starting from the Early Mesolithic, and, maybe, even earlier. The tracewear analysis demonstrated that these weapons had cut-and-thrust function. The weapons were personally owned which is demonstrated not only by their morphology and very careful finishing but also by various, and, largely, original marks, drawings and decorative patterns often made on bone and antler hunting knives. Straight one-bladed and double-bladed hunting knives-inserts were known since the end of the Paleolithic and were in use during the Mesolithic in the area spread from Belorussia and Southern Scandinavia to Eastern Siberia. Other variants of hunting knives-inserts are mostly represented at the Mesolithic sites by single items. In Eastern Europe inserted hunting knives are predominantly found at the sites dating from the preboreal and boreal periods (Fig. 1). The paper suggests a functional classification of Mesolithic daggers and hunting knives and describes their production technology and use-wear traces (Fig. 3-12).