Bifacial component of Mira, Layer I lithic assemblage

Located in the Dnieper valley and dated to ca. 32,000–31,000 cal BP, the site of Mira is characterized by the high level of conservation of human activity evidence. An important specificity of the site is its position in area without lithic raw material outcrops. The lithic industry of Mira, Layer I with confidence can be regarded as homogenous and containing no admixtures. At the same time, it is multi-component and includes specific Middle and Upper Palaeolithic tool types. Bifacial products constitute the essential archaic feature and are the focus of the presented paper. As a pivotal issue several related tasks are seen: to evaluate whether intensive use and recycling can distort the set of bifacial artefacts; to understand what role (core vs. tool) bifacial artefacts did play in technological chaîne opératoire under the terms of shortage of raw materials; to examine which analogies for bifacial products of Mira, Layer I can be seen, based on their technology and morphology. The analysis of available data allows concluding that the initial set of bifacial products was definitely distorted: some bifaces were used as cores, whilst the others were significantly reshaped and reduced. At the same time, no indication exists that the bifaces served as mobile cores from the onset. Instead, they actually played a role of occasional situational cores. Techno-morphological features of Mira, Layer I bifacial products provide reasons for searching the nearest analogies in local Micoquian-related Middle Palaeolithic records.