Features of Stone Artifact Caches in Eastern Fennoscandia

The article presents the results of a morphological and spatial analysis of the stone artifact caches discovered in Eastern Fennoscandia. During the study of this type of archaeological source, which provides information about exchange and religious practices of ancient people, the diff erences of the sets were studied and the contexts of their discovery were compared. The collected data made it possible to determine the age of most of the considered clusters of fi nds. A classifi cation algorithm was applied to the caches, aimed at identifying features that could explain the reasons for the formation and, sometimes, the concealment of compact concentrations of stone artifacts by ancient people. Four groups of intentionally grouped artifacts were identifi ed, diff ering in composition and purpose: caches found in the corners and under the walls of dwellings – construction off erings; caches are warehouses of chopping tools and their blanks from local stone rocks left by ancient people both at settlements and occasionally outside them; caches associated with the exchange of stone raw materials, consisting mainly of fl int semi-fi nished products or cores; hoards formed as a result of as-yet-unclear rituals, including diff erent categories of fi nished tools, most often projectile points.