ИСТИНА

Khotylevo 2 site in the Desna river valley (24-19 kyr BP) is one of the key sites of late Eastern Gravettian of the Russian Plain. Due to various specific traits in typology of flint and bone tools as well as portable art objects Khotylevo 2 couldn’t be attributed to Kostenki-Avdeevo culture (Zavernyaev 1991; Gavrilov 2008). Possible connections of Khotylevo 2 with older Pavlovian industries were widely discussed (Zavernyev 1991; Anikovich 1998; Gvozdover 1998). The study of lithic technology can give a new understanding of this problem. Lithic technology analysis showed similarity in the method and techniques of big and medium-sized blades production at Khotylevo 2 and Kostenki-Avdeevo culture sites. In fact, all attributes of blade production previously considered to be typical for Kostenki-Avdeevo culture sites (Giria and Bradley 1998) were revealed in Khotylevo 2 material. However, the method of armatures production at Khotylevo 2 site is absolutely different from the one used at Zaraisk (Kostenki-Avdeevo culture) (Eskova 2013). Despite some analogies in typology of armatures direct analogies in the method of armatures production wasn’t found at sites attributed to variant of Pavlovian industries with denticulated backed bladelets and gravette points (Polanská 2011). Probably, the closest analogy in armatures production is to be found in Molodovo 5/7 lithic industry (Nujhnyi 2009). The preliminary results of a case study on relation between raw material economy and symbolic behavior is to be presented as well. The lithic collection of Khotylevo 2 site include flint tools, blanks and cores with ornamented calcareous cortex (Zavernyaev 1981). The strong correlation between the use of rare kind of flint and the occurrence of ornaments was revealed in the course of the study.