The main stages of producing zoomorphic, polyeiconic, and anthropomorphic images are determined experimentally. Local and universal factors influencing the characteristics of Upper Paleolithic sculpture are highlighted: common conventional visual techniques, a limited set of possible technological operations, features of using the material and combining visual techniques on a particular monument, the individual manner of the master, technological errors and accidents, and the subject's taphonomy.

Keywords: Upper Paleolithic, the art of small forms.

Introduction

Objects of small Upper Paleolithic art were found on various monuments of Eurasia. Evidence for similar finds on other continents, such as America and Africa, is controversial and not so numerous (see, for example, [Wendt, 1974; Purdy et al., 2010; Alpert, 2012]). Due to the uniqueness and expressiveness of small art objects, a large number of works are devoted to the search for their meanings. At the same time, it is of particular interest to study the process of making objects, material processing technologies that allow us to identify local visual traditions and conduct their comparative analysis.

People of the Upper Paleolithic period made full use of the resources of the territory they inhabited : products made of mammoth tusk, bone, horn, soft stone, amber, stalactites, etc. have been preserved to this day (see, for example: Shovkoplyas, 1972; Beguen and Clottes, 1990; Abramova, 2005, 2010; Coltorti et al. al., 2010]). Zoomorphic and anthropomorphic images made of clay and clay mixtures have been found on a number of monuments, such as Pavlov, Dolni Vestonice in the Czech Republic, and Maina in Russia (Siberia) [Vasiliev, 1983; Klima, 1984; Pavlov I..., 2005]. Some products resemble natural objects and materials with their shape and artificially created surface texture: teeth, shells, fish scales, wood, etc. [Bibikova, 1965; Taborin, 1990; Chollet and Airvaux, 1990; White, 1997; Volkova, 2010].

Identifying all the links in the operational chain when creating small art objects, from the choice of material to the adjustment of the finished product, is associated with a number of objective problems and in many cases is not feasible. Often, the features of the material and the degree of preservation of the artifact make it difficult to conduct a trace analysis. The complexity of restoring the technology also lies in the fact that it is rare to find a series of objects on the monument, as well as blanks and unfinished products that allow you to reconstruct the full production cycle. Objects made of rarer materials (steatite, amber, serpentine, horn, stalactites) are rare and do not find direct analogies in other archaeological complexes.,

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teeth, etc.). Despite this, domestic and foreign researchers have obtained a number of results in the course of studying the process of creating Upper Paleolithic sculpture.

R. White proposed a scheme for creating an Upper Paleolithic female image, but it reflects not so much the technological process as the hypothetical system of views and actions that accompany it:

1) the appearance in people of special ideas related to women;

2) the emergence of ideas about the connection of materials, visual actions, objects with supernatural power;

3) selection and extraction of raw materials;

4) choosing the subject content;

5) organization of production (within a group of people, in space and time);

6) selection of production tools and performing appropriate manipulations;

7) making the desired items;

8) using images during any actions;

9) image storage based on the notion of preserving their power (White, 1997).

Based on the ethnographic data obtained, M. Mussi identified four stages of making figurines from the Grimaldi site (Italy):

1) shearing, rough processing;

2) form modeling;

3) execution of parts;

4) surface alignment (Mussi, 1995).

Russian researcher A. K. Filippov noted four technological stages of creating sculptural images found at the Maltese Upper Paleolithic site:

1) rough cutting of a piece of tusk;

2) creating a product diagram;

3) form modeling;

4) execution of details and application of ornaments [1983].

G. A. Khlopachev described two schemes for constructing the figure of female figurines from the monuments of the Russian Plain. Blanks for them had to have certain proportions and sizes. "The Kostenkov scheme for making figurines was built relative to the vertical axis of symmetry of the sculpture. On the back side, the surface of the figurine was defined by two consecutive identical V-shaped cutouts. On the front side, a V-shaped cutout served to separate the volume of the chest and abdomen" [Khlopachev, 2006, p. 128]. " Khotylev's scheme of figure construction was strictly focused on a billet in the form of a cylinder (short rod)... A distinctive feature of the figurines made according to the Khotylev scheme was the absence of a V-shaped incision separating the chest and abdomen" [Ibid., p. 129]. According to G. A. Khlopachev, it is possible to observe continuity between the two schemes, namely: "Kostenkovskaya" is a complicated version of "Khotylevskaya". The author identified two groups of parking lots: in the first one, only one of these schemes was used to create female figurines (Khotylevo-2, Avdeevo (new object), both Kostenok I complexes), in the second-both (old Avdeevo and Gagarino complexes) [Khlopachev, 1998, 2006].

Many researchers note that the master initially fully understood what kind of object he wanted to create. The design of products was a planned process, and a certain shape was given to them already at the initial stage of production [Gvozdover, 1953; Filippov, 1983; Gromadova, 2012; et al.]. Often, the natural properties of the material were successfully used: with minimal adjustments, the natural curves and surface relief of the workpiece were transformed into the intended pictorial detail.

Study of a series of sculptural images made of marl and soft limestone from the Kostenki I site

As part of the study of the technology of manufacturing small-scale art objects, the collection of serial marl and limestone products found in the Kostenok I cultural layer by P. P. Efimenko is of interest-about 300 samples representing sculptural and carved anthropomorphic and zoomorphic images and various kinds of handicrafts [1958]. Studies of marl from this site, conducted by G. F. Korobkova, showed that all cut lines and reliefs on artificial stones and products were made using flint knives with different blade widths, incisors and punctures [1969]. The characteristics and features of these artifacts allow us to consider several aspects on their example: the nature of fragmentation and incompleteness of most products, the presence of polyeiconic images in this visual tradition, the possibility of conducting technological experiments to produce similar objects from similar material and restore the operational chain.

According to some researchers, the results of studying fragments of female figurines from the collection under consideration indicate that the figurines, unlike those made from mammoth tusk, were deliberately broken. Perhaps these differences are due to the purpose and ritual function of objects [Abramova, 1966; Dupuy, 1999; Dupuy,

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Praslov, 1999]. Similarly fragmented zoomorphic sandstone images were found in the Isturitz grotto (Mons, 1986). At Gravetta sites in Moravia, there was also deliberate destruction of terracotta figurines, which researchers associate with hunting magic rites [Svoboda, 1999]. However, D. Dupuy, in his subsequent studies of the collection from Kostenok I, comes to the conclusion that the unfinished female torso or its parts were deliberately depicted, by analogy with objects from the sites of Dolni Vestonice and Pavlov. In her opinion, this phenomenon occurs in the visual arts and in subsequent epochs [Dupuy, 2012].

E. E. Fradkin believed that many undefined pieces of marl described by P. P. Efimenko are sculptural images of people and animals. At the same time, almost half of them are the product of a special type of human creative activity of the Upper Paleolithic era. The researcher suggested that not one, but two, three, four or more sculptural images were made simultaneously on each product. This phenomenon he called polyeikonia (Greek: polyeikonia). "poly" - a lot, "akon" - image, image) [Fradkin, 1969].

The origin of polyeikonic images is probably related to a more numerous category of natural objects (stones, minerals, bones, etc.) with a unique morphological appearance, namely, anthropo - and zoomorphic. Such objects probably represented people or animals with which they bore a certain resemblance (see, for example, [Edwards, 1978]). The hypothesis that the creation of ancient sculpture was preceded by the collection and preservation of natural figurative images (manuports), their further correction and completion of the natural model, was put forward at the very beginning of the study of ancient art by J. Boucher de Pert (see: Stolyar, 1985). These actions may have been due to the inherent tendency of human nature to form illusory images based on the details of a real object (pareidolia), and the ability to see the system in a set of random or meaningless data (apophenia). [Helvenston, Hodgson, 2010; Bustamante, Fay Yao, Bustamante, 2010].

Experimental production of a sculpture of the Upper Paleolithic appearance of the Kostenkovsky type

Taking into account the main features of creating marl and limestone products from the monument with Kostenka I described by the researchers, we conducted a number of experiments on the production of similar objects from chalk: animal figurines, polyeikonic images, and female sculptures of the Kostenkov type. M. Mussy, describing the features of creating female figurines from soft stone from the Grimaldi site, points out that as Small stones of a suitable shape were used as the starting material (Mussi, 1995). The same thing is noted by D. Dupuis regarding marl and chalk products from the Kostenka I site. It is possible that the source material was found near the outcrops of these rocks to the surface (Dupuy, 2007).

For experiments, we selected pieces of chalk whose natural shape resembles the silhouettes of animals or parts of their torso (Figs. 1, 1a, 2a). In this case, you can define three stages of image production:: 1) shape modeling, 2) execution of parts, 3) surface alignment. There is no primary processing stage, since there is already a blank-the source material of a suitable shape. The size of such products is on average 2-3 cm, and the production time of one image (Fig. 1, 1, 3) is not more than 20 minutes: the first stage - up to 7 minutes, the second-5-7, the third - 3 - 5 minutes. It took a little longer to create a polyeiconic image representing a feline and bear family animal: 12, 22, and 10 minutes, respectively.

All items were made using a plate chip obtained by splitting

Fig. 1. Small art objects of Upper Paleolithic appearance made experimentally from chalk. 1 - a mammoth figurine, 1a-a blank for it; 2-a polyeikonic image, 2a - a blank for it; 3-an image of a bear's head.

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Fig. 2. Experimentally manufactured flint plate (dotted line marks the wear zone of the working edge).

2). The same raw material is typical for a number of Stone Age monuments discovered in the area of this village since the 1950s, and in particular for a wide range of black chalk flint primary cleavage from outcrops near the village of Khotylevo, Bryansk district, Bryansk region. view of the Khotylevo-1 multi-layered monument and the Khotylevo-2 parking lot. For experimental chalk/marl carving, a lamellar chip with the most even (not tortuous) edges in the medial and distal parts was chosen. Its secondary processing was not carried out, because one of the goals of the experiment was to establish the minimum number of characteristics of the tool necessary for its successful use in carving on soft material. When working with a plate chip, its proximal part was clamped in the hand and, thus, the working area was located on the right edge of the distal one, its length is 35 mm.

It should be noted that the composition of flint raw materials at the Koch and Khotylevo sites differs (Yurgenson, Girya, and Moroz, 2012). These differences can affect the petrophysical and technological properties of flints. Consequently, when using Kostenkov flints, the results of the experiment (the duration of manufacturing objects, the degree of wear of the working edge of the tool, etc.) may be slightly different, but slightly different from the results obtained.

There are four operations that can be easily performed by the resulting chip in relation to the material under consideration: cutting, sawing, scraping and drilling. To level the surface with the working edge, the thinnest layer of material was removed by scraping. Based on observations during the creation of such images, it can be noted that if the entire surface of the Upper Paleolithic marl figures is smoothed, i.e. they are not fragments of other, larger products, for easier processing, pieces with a certain shape resembling a particular natural object were presumably selected. It is also impossible to exclude secondary disposal - the use of some parts of larger fragmented figures.

When making female images, the initial stage was marking the blank (head - torso (chest, stomach) - legs). The head, slightly tilted forward, was modeled by chipping with a scraper. Then the shoulders, chest and stomach were formed. The latter were separated by a V-shaped neck, which was scraped out using a plate (Fig. 3). In the described case, we did not quite calculate the proportions of the figurine being made, and the legs turned out to be slightly reduced, at first glance, broken off. The final stage is image correction. The working edge scraped out excess chalk from under the chest and abdomen; a thin layer of material was removed and the corners were smoothed, rounded shapes of the head, chest, and abdomen were created. Some details of corrections-

Fig. 3. An experimentally made chalk image of a woman (a) and a blank for it (b).

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Fig. 4. Fragments of an experimentally made chalk image of a woman.

they flowed intuitively, under the influence of an aesthetic sense ("it will be more beautiful this way").

According to our experiments, the production of a sculptural image of the Kostenkov type from chalk using a flint plate chip takes on average no more than 5 hours. If we take into account the data of J. Hahn, who took more than 40 hours to create a copy of the horse figurine from Vogerhold (Hahn, 1990), can conclude that the production of a sculpture from a tusk takes almost 8 times longer, which probably affects the degree of its value in the eyes of the creators.

We also conducted an experiment on intentionally breaking a specially made female figure made of chalk. When thrown from a height of more than 1 m, it split into several parts, which can then be used to make silhouette images of animals or their heads (Fig. 4). The fracture surface differs from the treated one by the presence of sharp edges. This evidence can be taken into account when analyzing fragments and determining their nature: intentional breaking or initial incompleteness.

In general, the time to create a small zoomorphic figure (or head) varies from 7 to 20 minutes, and an anthropomorphic one, depending on the size, - from 1.5 to 5 hours.Some difficulty is represented by the execution of details of a miniature female image using a plate chip - smaller tools are needed, but they were not used in our experiment. Using a 100 mm long plate chip with a working edge of 35 mm, you can make both small silhouette images of animals and fairly large (approx. 110 mm) anthropomorphic ones. Traces on the surface of finished products are embossed, completely repeating the working edge of the plate chip used. The tool wear zone at a small magnification is a surface with facets of crumbling along the edge of the edge. Chalk remains in microcracks of flint and is easily distinguished at the slightest magnification (see Figs. 2, 6).

Conclusions

The conducted experiments allow us to draw the following conclusions.

1. For the production of a sculptural image from chalk, it is optimal to use a plate chip without secondary processing, with a sharp working edge, which allows you to easily perform the following technological operations: cutting, sawing, scraping.

2. On finished products, there are clear traces that repeat the working edge of the plate chip, which can be seen even with the naked eye.

3. For the production of small zoomorphic images, the most suitable fragments of broken larger figures could be used.

4. The time required to create a sculpture from chalk is presumably several times less than from a tusk.

5. Preference was given to the source material with a natural shape that resembles parts of the animal or human body. In this case, the steps for creating an image are as follows: modeling the silhouette, performing details, and leveling the surface.

In general, we can talk about the existence of universal and local factors that affect the main characteristics of small art objects.

Universal factors:

- unified conventional visual techniques: the image of a female figure in an exaggerated or schematic manner, a triangle as a sign of the female sex, schematic contours of the body of mammals, the simplest geometric elements of ornament, etc., due to the unified nature of both the depicted objects and human thinking;

- a limited set of technological operations in the process of creating small-scale art objects

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(preserved to our time), determined by the widespread use of a limited set of materials. Local factors:

- features of the use of material on a particular monument and the technology of its processing, for example, differences in the primary splitting of the tusk, in the shapes of blanks, etc.;

- the choice of the inhabitants of a certain parking lot of the most optimal set of visual techniques, ornamental motifs from a limited number of possible ones;

- execution of the subject in the individual manner of the master;

- technological errors, accidents;

- taphonomy of the object within a certain monument - the influence of the conditions of occurrence on the preservation of the object.

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The article was submitted to the editorial Board on 05.02.13, in the final version-on 21.03.13

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