FLINT COMPLEX FROM THE MULTI-LAYERED SETTLEMENT OF KHRINNYKY 1 IN STYR REGION (RESEARCH OF 2022)
Authors: KONOPLIA Vitaliy , POHORALSKYI Yaroslav 
Published: December 2024

The multi-layered settlement of Khrinnyky-1 (Dubno district, Rivne oblast) is one of the best-researched sites of the Volhynian Upland, where archaeological materials from the Late Paleolithic to the Late Middle Ages were found. Since 1993, it has been studied by the Volhynian Archaeological Expedition of the Institute of Archeology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. The works of 2022 continued the excavation of the highest part of the settlement on the left bank of the Styr River.

In addition to various movable materials, primarily ceramic, 654 artifacts made of Turonian flint (the fourth subtype of Western Volhynian flint) were obtained, which is deposited in the form of nodules near the site and was used by its ancient population to produce various tools.

The flint complex includes three patinated products belonging to the Swiderian site of the Final Palaeolithic.

The collection of 74 artifacts of the Volhynian-Lublin culture is more informative. The initial stages of the flint knapping technique of the population of the ancient settlement took place outside the boundaries of the area defined above, as indicated by the quantitatively insignificant finds of single-platform cores, blades, and flakes. In the list of household tools, a prime position is occupied by products with one- and two-sided retouched side edges, prepared, mainly from the backs, with dentate (dominating) and scaly retouch, with an almost complete absence of straight retouch. Quantitatively, burins, mostly dihedral ones, are inferior to them but almost double the presence of end scrapers. A similar phenomenon is typical for the flint industries of the later Malice and early Volhynian-Lublin cultures of the Volhynian region.

The most important achievement of the 2022 field season was the study of the flint-knapping center of the Lezhnytsia group, discovered in the previous year. 577 artifacts were found, and together with the materials from the area examined in 2021, the collection includes 1006 pieces.

The analysis of artifacts from the Early Scythian period made it possible to reveal for the first time the content of flint-knapping of this community, which was almost unexplored. It was possible to significantly expand the range of recognized work tools, where, in addition to the previously known sickles and percussors, retouched flakes and parablades of various types, end scrapers, notches, drills, etc. were distinguished.

At that time, the «preserved base» technique, which originated in flint-knapping at the end of the 3rd millennium BC, continued to be used everywhere in Europe. It consisted of four technological stages: 1) extraction of raw materials; 2) formation of proto-forms of bifacial products (sickles, axes, spearheads) from cores or from their longitudinally knapped parts; 3) bringing these items to completion, first by percussion, and at the end by pressure; 4) production of tools from flakes and parablades obtained in the process of flint knapping with their appropriate retouching.

Keywords: Khrinnyky, Styr region, settlements, excavations, flint knapping center, flint products, flakes, parablades, Swiderian culture, Volhynian-Lublin culture, Lezhnytsia group of the Early Scythian period.