Weapons from the Upper Mesolithic Layer of Alimovskiy Rockshelter in the Crimea

The article presents weapons from the upper Mesolithic layer of the Alimovskiy rockshelter excavated by A. D. Stolyar in 1955. The collection is kept in the State Hermitage museum. The trench excavated in 2022 by M. G. Zhilin confirmed the stratigraphy exposed in the eastern part of the 1955 trench and enriched the archaeological collection. The site contains four Mesolithic layers dated to the Early, Middle, Late and Final Mesolithic. About one hundred trapezes and several segments were found in the upper Mesolithic layer. The faunal collection is dominated by red deer and wild boar bones. Weapons from this layer were identified by the authors on the basis of use-wear and experimental analyses for the first time. Transverse arrowheads are numerous. Trapezes and segments were used for this purpose. No other weapons were found. Despite good preservation of bone and careful excavations, no bone weapons were found in 1955 and 1922, though several small bone awls were discovered. Flint inserts of composite weapons are absent too. Such inserts are normally met at sites where such weapons were used. These facts lead to the conclusion that bow and arrows with transversal arrowheads were the universal weapons of the population which left the upper Mesolithic layer of the Alimovskiy rockshelter site.