Archaeologists discover My Street programme’s oldest artefacts

Archaeologists have unearthed an ancient silicic cutter. The artefact was found during work  to replace utility lines near building No. 34/1. The cutter is a tool with a sharpened edge. Ancient people used it to cut bones, skins, horns, and certain types of stones. It is 2.5 centimetres wide and almost 4 centimetres long.

“The cutter is one of the universal tools of ancient man. It is completely preserved, including the petiole with lateral symmetrical recesses for fastening a bone, horn or wooden handle,” said Head of the Department of Cultural Heritage Alexei Yemelyanov.

The cutter is considered to be one of the most ancient finds discovered under the My Street renovation programme; the find dates back to the Neolithic period (5th – 3rd millennium BC). This is the end of the Stone Age, when people mainly used stone, bone and wooden tools. The Neolithic period is marked by a transition from the consuming to producing form of economy, such as agriculture and cattle-breeding. A cutter is one of the most common tools of the time.

“This ancient find is very important for archaeologists. It confirms our theory about the development of these territories back in the early days. We understand that this area was also inhabited by ancient people. And it happened long before there were streets and houses here,” — Alexei Yemelyanov told mos.ru.

According to the head of the Department of Cultural Heritage, archaeologists determined the age of the finds after analysing the method for preparing the outer surface of the cutter. There were signs of a pressure flaking technique, characteristic of the Neolithic age. By means of this technique, cutting off thin flakes, a tool was sharpened.

Alexei Yemelyanov also added that during the My Street works near 10 Pokrovsky Boulevard under the My Street renovation programme another artefact from the Stone Age was found — a fragment of an end scraper, which dates back to a more ancient period — the Mesolithic period (7th millennium BC). The scraper was made of an elongated stone plate with a pointed blade on the end.

The fragment is 1.5 centimetres wide and 3 centimetres long. Ancient people could have used it in everyday life and work. For example, scrapers were used on animal skins to scrape the inside, so that they would become thinner and softer. Then with silicon knives they were cut into pieces to sew clothes.

What unites both finds is that both the ancient scraper and the cutter were discovered in a later cultural layer, which dates back to the 16th –17th centuries AD. Experts suggest that it is unlikely that they were re-used. The tools probably came to the surface from deeper and more ancient cultural layers by accident, during excavation works carried out 400-500 years ago.

Currently, specialists are examining the artefacts. In the future, according to Alexei Yemelyanov, the finds may be handed over to a museum or displayed at temporary exhibitions dedicated to the archaeology of Moscow.

Recently, fragments of two stone axes from the Bronze Age were discovered during works on the territory of Zaryadye Park. The artefacts date back to the 3rd – 2nd millennium BC, meaning that the unearthed cutter and scraper are at least 1,000 years older than the axes (the BC chronology is in reverse order).

Archaeological monitoring is carried out at all construction sites of the My Street programme. Thanks to archaeologists’ work under the My Street programme, over 1,000 artefacts were found in previous years and hundreds of finds have been recorded this year. Among other things, experts discovered the foundations of four old churches, a well from Catherine the Great’s time, a Finno-Ugric noise-making pendant, and a personalised fishing weight. Archaeologists also discovered a silver coin trove, secret rooms in the Kitai-Gorod Wall, and silver coins hidden in a chess piece from the time of Ivan the Terrible.