FORMS OF BEVELS AND ARROWHEAD MOUNTINGS DURING THE MESOLITHIC IN FOREST ZONE OF EASTERN EUROPE

Abstract

Excavations of peat bog sites indicate that bone and antler arrowheads were widely used in many Mesolithic cultures in the East European forest zone. As a rule they are more numerous and various than stone arrowheads. Nowadays 26 types of Mesolithic bone arrowheads were singled out, and many types of them are divided into subtypes basing on the shape of their bevels. Most arrowheads with round cross section have conical bevels. If the arrowhead has oval cross section, the bevel is in most cases flattened conical. Substantial part of arrowheads with round or oval section has pyramid-like bevels with long flat facets left by whittling. Conical bevels with a step at the transition from the stem into the base of an arrowhead are scarce. Arrowheads with wedge-like bevels formed by long flat facets at opposite sides of the base are rare in the Mesolithic of the forest zone of Eastern Europe. Juxtaposition of the shape of arrowheads and the form of their bevels shows no correlation between the type of arrowhead and the variant of bevel for the most part of these artefacts. Different form of the bevels is obviously connected with the mode of hafting of the arrowhead. Traces of glue used for fixing of the bone point in the arrow shaft are preserved on bases of many arrowheads. This makes possible to reconstruct the following chain of operations of hafting bone arrowhead in the arrow shaft: 1 – splitting the shaft; 2 – covering the base of the bone arrowhead with the heated glue; 3 – insertion of the arrowhead into the split shaft and smoothing of the warm glue on the surface at the place of the joint; 4 – binding of the basal part of the arrowhead and the end of the shaft at the place of the joint.