Stone Tools From the Late Bronze Age Settlement in the Southern Part of the Ukrainian Right-Bank Forest-Steppe
Stone Tools From the Late Bronze Age Settlement in the Southern Part of the Ukrainian Right-Bank Forest-Steppe

Summary/Abstract: The article is dedicated to the publication of the stone tools from the Belogrudovka‑culture settlement recently discovered near the village of Selivanove, Kirovohrad region, in the southern part of the Ukrainian forest‑steppe, on the right bank of the Ingul River. These tools were found, together with other materials—especially Belogrudovka ceramics (fragments of pots, ladles, cups, etc.)—in a ploughed field and undoubtedly originate from a destroyed cultural layer. They include artifacts related to agriculture (a grinding stone, several types of hand‑mills) and metallurgy (a pestle). The two hand‑mills and the pestle stand out for the perfection of their form and the meticulousness of their workmanship, and they currently have no direct analogies. The stone tools were studied not only through traditional archaeological methods but also through geological research techniques. They were made from four types of rock: quartzite (grinding stone), gneiss (two hand‑mills), sandstone (another hand‑mill), and dolerite (pestle). With the exception of the gneiss—whose outcrops are located in the area of the settlement near Selivanove—the deposits of the other rocks lie at distances of tens or even hundreds of kilometers from the site. This circumstance suggests, in the authors’ view, the existence of good relations between those who extracted the raw material and the stone‑cutting craftsman (or craftsmen). There are certain reasons to believe that the dolerite pestle and the large gneiss hand‑mill were manufactured directly at the Selivanove settlement. The preliminary dating of the stone tools falls within the period of the Belogrudovka culture of the Late Bronze Age — the 12th–9th centuries BC.

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