Blade Production in the Stone Industry of the Upper Palaeolithic Site Tri Skaly (Western Transbaikalian)

In 2015 the investigations on a new multi-layered archaeological site named Tri Skaly started. The analysis of the stone artifacts showed that lithological layers 3–5 contains the homogenous materials‑ typical to the early stage of the Upper Palaeolithic in the Western Transbaikalia. Materials under consideration include such important component of the primary knapping as blades and cores used for blade production. The first results of the investigations showed that the industry of the Tri Skaly site is among the industries combined into Tolbaga Palaeolithic culture which is characterized by the prevailing of the making tools from stone blades. This article is devoted to the consideration of the blade component in the stone industry of the 3–5 lithological layers of the Tri Skaly site which is situated in the central part of the Selenga Highlands. Based on the studies carried out, it has been established that the typology and morphology of the main groups of stone artifacts of the Tri Skaly in most parameters are similar to the materials of such sites of the early Upper Paleolithic of Western Transbaikalia as Tolbaga and the Eastern Podzvonkoy complex. A significantly smaller number of blades of the Tri Skaly is noted in comparison with the ones from Tolbaga and the Eastern Podzvonka complex, converted into tools or used as tools without preliminary retouching. Presumably, this may be due to the specifics of the excavated area, where primary knapping was mainly carried out.