Stone Tools of Sarybulun
Even in the best books about the culture of ancient pastoralists, which showcase the rarest items made of gold and gemstones, beautiful examples of artistic crafts made from wood, leather, and felt, miraculously preserved in the permafrost of burial mounds, there are universally weak sections. In these monographs, the tools of labor of ancient pastoralists are clearly insufficiently covered or not covered at all. This is not because the authors did not master the research methodology perfectly, nor because their works lacked depth of analysis. No, the weakness of such sections was determined by the very object of study — the burial mounds, which generally do not provide sufficient information about this crucial aspect of human history. The picture changes dramatically when studying settlements, where finds of jewelry are extremely rare, which is entirely compensated by quite frequent discoveries of tools.
At the settlement of Sarybulun, the following stone tools were found: grinding stones, pestles, hammers, anvils, whetstones, variously shaped sinkers, spindles, graters, sickle-shaped knives, and hoes.
All grinding stones are elongated-oval in shape, with the most common specimens being of significant size, their working surfaces are heavily worn, and the ends of the grinding stones are raised so that in profile they resemble the silhouette of a boat with a high bow and stern. Grains were ground using a grinding stone, which was usually a naturally elongated pebble. In certain areas, up to a dozen whole and broken grinding stones were found within a small area, indicating that there was once a utility room here.
Special studies conducted by G.F. Korobkova showed that the labor of turning grain into flour using such grinding stones was extremely hard, with very low productivity: no more than 2 kg of grain in 4 hours of pure working time. (Interestingly, as experiments showed, modern women achieve twice the productivity with a grinding stone compared to men). Truly, bread for the farmers of that time, especially for women, was hard-earned.
Particular attention is drawn to the find of stone sickle-shaped knives, elegantly crafted, one might say, with a jeweler's precision. Such knives are typical for Fergana, Southern Uzbekistan, and Xinjiang, where they are known from mass finds at settlements of the late Bronze Age and early Iron Age. However, stone sickle-shaped knives are a rarity at Issyk-Kul.
What is the functional purpose of these fragile-looking items, the production of which required considerable skill, patience, and time? What could be done with their help? The abundance of finds of stone sickle-shaped knives at late Bronze Age settlements in Fergana allowed archaeologist E.B. Druzhinina to conduct an experiment with one of them. According to her, the knife easily cut bundles (of 15 stems) of wheat and barley, sliced hollow reeds, and even thin branches of shrubs. The experiment was fully confirmed by traceological analyses.
The study of micro-traces on Fergana stone knives convincingly proved that they were mainly used as sickles.
At the settlement of Sarybulun, a collection of more than twenty different stone hammers and mallets, resembling pestles, was gathered: cylindrical, truncated-conical, with a distinct oval top.
Where there are hammers, there must also be anvils. Two of them were found on the shore at the edge of the bay, 12 m apart; they are flattened spherical river boulders with a wide round depression at the top. The stones weigh over 50 kg, which significantly complicated their movement. Apparently, these anvils were stationary. A small (12X6 cm) round anvil and a fragment of an oval one were also found nearby.
The craftsmen of that time mastered the drilling of stone. At the settlement, drilled round and oval pebbles were found — so-called sinkers, spindles, buttons, and sharpening stones. Of particular note is the find of a flywheel for drills.
Ancient Ceramics of Sarybulun