Gennady A. Khlopachev* and Alfiya Yu. Sayfieva**
Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (Kunstkamera) RAS, Saint Petersburg, Russia
*Email: gakmae@yandex.ru
**Email: gitbadger@gmail.com
Keywords: Upper Palaeolithic, Sungir site, burial complex, tusk beads, composite ornaments, reconstruction method, clothing.
This article focuses on the reconstruction of Upper Palaeolithic clothing based on tusk bead ornaments from the burials of a man and two adolescent boys discovered in 1964 and 1969 by O.N. Bader at the Sungir site. The model of an Arctic-type costume proposed by Bader is examined. The authors substantiate an alternative model for the clothing of the people buried at the site. The latter model included a sleeveless, poncho-like shoulder garment cinched with a belt and leggings attached to moccasin-type footwear. The new reconstruction does not suggest any headdress; parallel rows of threads around the heads of the deceased are regarded as separate bands, and the ornaments made of Arctic fox fangs on the cranial vault are considered to be elements of hairstyle decoration. The complex rhythmic arrangement of plate bracelets and threads-bracelets on the arms of the deceased raises the question of the possible social and communicative role of these ornaments in the funerary rite that existed in Eastern Europe during the final period of the Early Upper Palaeolithic.
DOI: 10.7868/S3034577426020013
