{"id":"GURINA1956-001","label":"Oleniy Ostrov slate blades","people_or_site":"Yuzhniy Oleniy Ostrov cemetery, Lake Onega (Mesolithic); anchor blade from grave 119","country_current":"Russia","historic_region":"Lake Onega, Republic of Karelia; Mesolithic","macroregion":"Europe / Eastern Europe","local_name":"","source_term":"сланцевые ножи (slate knives)","source_language":"Russian","object_description":"Thin plates of grey slate split along the stone's layers, ground smooth, with broad blunt edges and a small hole drilled near one end; sixty came from thirty burials. The anchor, from grave 119, is a complete oval blade 19 × 6.5 cm with a thin lens-shaped section.","function_summary":"Not recorded.","attestation_type":"archaeological_find","source_key":"gurina1956_oleni_ostrov_fig76_3","source_type":"archaeological_monograph","source_url":"https://www.klex.ru/1qsa","page_or_plate":"Gurina 1956, p. 126 fig. 76.3 (grave 119), p. 128 dimensions, pp. 123–130, p. 356","map_confidence":"low_medium","plot_status":"candidate_only","coordinate_basis":"Yuzhniy Oleniy Ostrov burial ground, about 7–8 km south of Kizhi in Lake Onega (Megalithic Portal site point 61.991518, 35.227493). Island-level anchor, not grave 119.","jade_complex_role":"","blurb":"On a small island in Lake Onega, Mesolithic people buried their dead in red ochre with strings of animal teeth: bear canines, elk incisors, plates cut from beaver teeth. The cemetery falls into two halves. Elk effigies go with the northern graves, effigies of snakes and of people with the southern ones. Its busiest centuries came during a sudden cold spell some 8,200 years ago. Sixty thin slate blades went into thirty of the burials, split along the stone's natural layers, ground smooth and drilled with a small hole near one end. Grave 119, in the northern group, held this one: 19 centimetres of grey slate, its broad face whole.","pull_quote":"","pull_quote_translation":"","pull_quote_cite":"","term_gloss":"","cls":"unknown","class_label":"Function not recorded","color":"#6B7884","is_candidate":true,"flags":["snake"],"f_jade_complex":false,"f_women_taboo":false,"f_women_special":false,"f_snake":true,"f_archaeology":true,"archaeology_kind":"assemblage","date_display":"c. 6300–6050 BC","date_qualification":"Cemetery main-use period; grave 119 blade not directly dated.","date_basis":"site_horizon","date_confidence":"medium","date_citation":"gurina1956_oleni_ostrov_fig76_3, Schulting et al. 2022, Nature Ecology & Evolution 6:155–162 (accepted manuscript p. 2)","sources":[{"citation":"N. N. Gurina, Оленеостровский могильник (Oleneostrovskii mogil'nik), Materialy i issledovaniya po arkheologii SSSR 47 (1956), pp. 123–130, fig. 76.3, p. 356","url":"https://www.klex.ru/1qsa"},{"citation":"Rick J. Schulting et al., 'Radiocarbon dating from Yuzhniy Oleniy Ostrov cemetery reveals complex human responses to socio-ecological stress during the 8.2 ka cooling event', Nature Ecology & Evolution 6 (2022): 155–162","url":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-021-01628-4"},{"citation":"R. Eckelmann et al., 'Mobility and community at Mesolithic Lake Onega, Karelia, north-west Russia: insights from strontium isotope analysis', Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences 17:17 (2025)","url":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-024-02129-8"}],"source_citations":"N. N. Gurina, Оленеостровский могильник (Oleneostrovskii mogil'nik), Materialy i issledovaniya po arkheologii SSSR 47 (1956), pp. 123–130, fig. 76.3, p. 356; Rick J. Schulting et al., 'Radiocarbon dating from Yuzhniy Oleniy Ostrov cemetery reveals complex human responses to socio-ecological stress during the 8.2 ka cooling event', Nature Ecology & Evolution 6 (2022): 155–162; R. Eckelmann et al., 'Mobility and community at Mesolithic Lake Onega, Karelia, north-west Russia: insights from strontium isotope analysis', Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences 17:17 (2025)","source_display":"N. N. Gurina, Оленеостровский могильник (Oleneostrovskii mogil'nik), Materialy i issledovaniya po arkheologii SSSR 47 (1956), pp. 123–130, fig. 76.3, p. 356; Rick J. Schulting et al., 'Radiocarbon dating from Yuzhniy Oleniy Ostrov cemetery reveals complex human responses to socio-ecological stress during the 8.2 ka cooling event', Nature Ecology &…","date_citation_display":"Schulting et al. 2022, Nature Ecology & Evolution 6:155–162 (accepted manuscript p. 2)","object_display":"Thin plates of grey slate split along the stone's layers, ground smooth, with broad blunt edges and a small hole drilled near one end; sixty came from thirty burials. The anchor, from grave 119, is a complete oval blade 19 × 6.5 cm with a thin lens-shaped section.","function_display":"Not recorded.","confidence_display":"low to medium","attestation_label":"archaeological find","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"yuzhniy oleniy","display_name":"Oleniy Ostrov slate blades","image":{"full":"assets/objects/GURINA1956-001_gurina-fig76-300-132.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/GURINA1956-001_gurina-fig76-300-132_thumb.jpg","alt":"Line drawing of a long oval slate plate, slightly narrower at the bottom, with a small round hole near the top edge and a thin lens-shaped cross-section drawn underneath.","credit":"N. N. Gurina, Оленеостровский могильник (1956), fig. 76.3","source_page":"https://www.klex.ru/1qsa","rehosted":true,"representative":false,"caption":"Slate blade from grave 119 at Oleniy Ostrov, with its small hole near the top and its thin cross-section below."},"slug":"gurina1956-001-yuzhniy-oleniy-ostrov-cemetery-lake-onega-mesolithic-anchor-blade-from-grav"}