Towards Verification of the Structural Characteristics of Middle Palaeolithic Keilmessers from Sukhaya Mechetka

The article is devoted to the study of one of the types of Keilmessers, the Volgograd-type knife, from the Micoquian/KMG assemblage of the Sukhaya Mechetka site. For the first time, 3D geometric morphometrics method is used to study the morphology of stone artifacts within the framework of the structural approach, combined with the analysis of flaking systems. The methods used are aimed at highlighting the seriality of individual elements in the structure of artifacts. It allows to offer an up-to-date approach to comparing assemblages with bifacial tools, regardless of their cultural and chronological attribution. In the course of the work it was possible to Point our the seriality of structural elements of the keilmessers of the Sukhaya Mechetka type and to determine their characteristic features. This work represents a stage of research that aspires to identify typological features within the Keilmesser era (Late Auchelian — Early Upper Paleolithic) and, finally, to better understand the cultural and temporal variability of the Middle Palaeolithic Micoquian/KMG unity/technocomplex of North Eurasia.