Over 80 artefacts crafted from animal bone and half-products were found by archaeologists at a Prehistoric settlement site near Manzherok in Russian Federation’s southern Siberia. The site dates back 2000 years.

The discoveries were made within the settlement known as Chultukov Log-9, established by one of the Siberian Hun-type cultures. Archaeologists believe that the area of Central Asia is the indigenous land from which the people who invaded Europe in 4th century originate. Typical object for this culture was the bow, and the excavations revealed over a dozen bone plates used to strengthen bows in their middle part and at the ends. So far this kind of Hun-related artefact was known only from burial contexts.

Archaeologists believe that they might have found a workshop where the craftsman was creating objects from animal bones. Evidence to that forms a large quantity of ready to use tools and tens of half-products, including arrowheads. Among the finds is a whetstone that might have been used to sharpen iron knives used in bone processing. Other finds consist of bone pipes and shoulder-bones with holes. The pipes might have been handles of other tools, such as whips or – basing on ethnographic comparisons – an elaborate system of draining urine from a newborn’s cradle. Among the discoveries made during this season are remains of hearths, dugout houses, utility and resource pits, couple of thousands pottery shards, and numerous stone, bronze and iron objects.

(after Nauka w Polsce & Łukasz Oleszczak)