Fire Striking Flints of the Ananyino Cultural and Historical Area Bearers (based on materials from the Senior Akhmyolovo burial ground)
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.24852/2587-6112.2026.2.208.224Keywords:
archaeology, Middle Volga region, Early Iron Age, Ananyino cultural and historical area, fire striking flints, classification, use-wear analysis, chronologyAbstract
This paper deals with fire striking flints from the Senior Akhmylovo burial ground, the largest necropolis of the Ananyino cultural and historical area. The identification of the fire striking flints is carried out using archaeological and experimental-use wear analysis data. The primary archaeological indicators for this category of items are their placement in burials in close proximity to organic tinder remains and iron firefiresteel. The latter were represented by fragments of knives and other small iron objects. A morphological and statistical analysis of the flints (49 pieces) revealed seven groups distinguished by length, width, and the height-to-width ratio. There are macro-use-wear traces of fire striking flints on the ends of most studied artifacts, including heavily clogged edges, deformed striking edges, step flakes, small conical pits and scratches. The flints with no wear traces have been recorded, as well as symbolic artifacts that substituted for fire lighting flints: a thin ribbed blade, a fragment of an adze, and an arrowhead. Fire striking flints occur more frequently in male burials than in female ones. The burials containing fire striking flints at the Senior Akhmylovo burial ground date to the IX–V centuries BC.
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