Biconical Arrowheads from the Cave Sacred Place on the Stone Dirovatiy (the Chusovaya River, Middle Urals)

Abstract

The unique collection of arrowheads of all epochs from the Mesolithic to the Middle Ages (about 22 thousand items) was found in the cave sacred place on the Stone Dirovatiy (the Chusovaya river in the Sverdlovsk region). The author analyzes biconical arrowheads which are the rarest type of the Stone Age arrowheads. Among 780 biconical arrowheads, the products of the Mesolithic, Neolithic and Eneolithic were allocated and described. The Mesolithic arrowheads (328 items) are of two types. The first type prevails (about 90%) and has a convex separative belt on the connection of cone's base. Arrowheads of the second type have lower cone which is wider than the upper cone. As a result, there is a ledge between the cones. Among the Neolithic biconical arrowheads (383 items), the products that have a regular form of body of rotation are the most interesting ones. Such form could be created only as a result of turning which also cannot be cut out by hand. Five types of those arrowheads were defined. Arrowheads of the first type (246 items) have a biconical head and flattened on a two-edged nozzle. The upper cone of arrowhead has a cut on 5 - 8 edges, and the lower cone is decorated with a circular ornament. The upper cone of arrowheads of the second type (24 items) also has a cut and flattened on a two-edged nozzle. The lower part of the upper cone is decorated with a circular ornament. In the collection of the Neolithic arrowheads, there are the artefacts with traces of turning processing but without a circular ornament (14 items). The arrowheads without decorations (9 items) are single allocated, their biconical head and nozzle are made with planning. The last type is performed with the chiseled arrowheads. The lower cone of them is ornamented with a frequent thin rifling parallel to each other (13 items). The traces of processing on biconical arrowheads incontrovertibly argue that the Neolithic men on the territory of Middle Trans-Urals already used turning lathe with a bow driver. The author proves that bones for arrowheads were softened in advance with a chemical way. Biconical arrowheads of the Eneolithic are performed with the products of original kind (51 items). The upper cone was made like a stretched trihedral pyramid with noticeably rounded edges. The lower cone sharp constricts closer to the top and turns into a thin awl-looked nozzle of round cut.