Complex Study of a Personal Ornament Made on a Marmot Incisor from the Early Holocene Complex of Kaminnaya Cave (Russian Altai)

The article presents the oldest evidence of non- utilitarian use of marmot incisors in North Asia. The ornamented marmot incisor comes from the Early Holocene layer of the Kaminnaya Cave. The artifact was studied by methods of high precision three-dimensional modeling, experiment and traceological analysis. In order to obtain detailed information on the morphological characteristics of the artificial relief, a high-precision three-dimensional scanner of structured light and a three-dimensional surface profiler were used to analyze and compare the features of artificial modification on the surfaces of both the prehistoric artifact and its experimental replicas. As a result, the method of modification was reconstructed, and the non-utilitarian function of the object was identified. The concluding part of the article touches upon the interaction between marmots and man in the Pleistocene and Holocene of the Altai Mountains, with special attention paid to their use in the Holocene funeral practices.