TY - JOUR

T1 - Pigment decoration of palaeolithic anthropomorphous figurines from Siberia

AU - Lbova, L. V.

AU - Volkov, P. V.

N1 - The authors would like to express their deep gratitude to N. Khaikunova and other employees of the State Historical Museum (Moscow) for providing the opportunity to work with the collections and for fruitful discussions. We also thank the administration of Novosibirsk State University, who supported the archaeological research of the LIA ARTEMIR. We are very grateful to the Russian Foundation for Basic Research and Le Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS, France) for funding this study (project No. 17-56-16016). We also thank the anonymous RAR referees for their welcome and constructive reviews of our work. Publisher Copyright: © 2018 Rock Art Research. All rights reserved.

PY - 2017/11/1

Y1 - 2017/11/1

N2 - Microscopic research of samples taken from anthropomorphous sculptures that were discovered at the Upper Palaeolithic site of Mal'ta (19-23 ka BP) in southern Siberia provide new information on the decoration of the so-called 'Palaeolithic Venuses'. The article enumerates the technological stages of making the objects, including the initial stage of ivory processing, creating the blanks of the sculptures, modelling their main features, and focuses on the stage of decoration and final treatment of the objects. Typically applied sets of tools are identified for each stage of processing. Special attention is paid to the details of figurine decoration: ornamentation, engraving, detailing of 'clothing' and accessories, and colouring. Decoration was applied using a standard set of techniques and involved typical elements of ornamentation and combinations of elements, as well as specific areas of ornamentation and colouring. Additional decoration of anthropomorphous figurines in Mal'ta was made using pigments (red, green and blue) on some objects. Traces of pigments were identified using an Altami microscope and Bruker M1 Mistral spectrometer.

AB - Microscopic research of samples taken from anthropomorphous sculptures that were discovered at the Upper Palaeolithic site of Mal'ta (19-23 ka BP) in southern Siberia provide new information on the decoration of the so-called 'Palaeolithic Venuses'. The article enumerates the technological stages of making the objects, including the initial stage of ivory processing, creating the blanks of the sculptures, modelling their main features, and focuses on the stage of decoration and final treatment of the objects. Typically applied sets of tools are identified for each stage of processing. Special attention is paid to the details of figurine decoration: ornamentation, engraving, detailing of 'clothing' and accessories, and colouring. Decoration was applied using a standard set of techniques and involved typical elements of ornamentation and combinations of elements, as well as specific areas of ornamentation and colouring. Additional decoration of anthropomorphous figurines in Mal'ta was made using pigments (red, green and blue) on some objects. Traces of pigments were identified using an Altami microscope and Bruker M1 Mistral spectrometer.

KW - Decoration

KW - Figurine

KW - Mal'ta

KW - Pigment

KW - Siberia

KW - Upper palaeolithic

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85051388165&partnerID=8YFLogxK

UR - https://elibrary.ru/item.asp?id=35726183

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85051388165

VL - 34

SP - 169

EP - 178

JO - Rock Art Research

JF - Rock Art Research

SN - 0813-0426

IS - 2

ER -