Art of the Mammoth Hunters

Book excerpt: Unique examples of Paleolithic art and an extremely rich collection of stone and bone implements make the site of Avdeevo one of the most interesting and important of the Upper Paleolithic on the Russian plain. These assemblages point to clear connections with sites such as Willendorf and Dolni Vestonice in central Europe as well as with the similar Russian site at Kostenki. The worked bone and art objects include bone awls and decorated points, burnishers, diadems, trinkets and beads. There are fragments of bone with engraved ornament; there are utilitarian objects with anthropomorphic and zoomorphic decoration; there are figurines of mammoth and horse; and there are fourteen female figures with distinctive artistic characteristics that distinguish them from similar material from other sites. The descriptions and illustrations of all these objects have been prepared by Mariana Gvozdover who began excavating at Avdeevo in 1972; they are here edited for publication by Paul Bahn.