The tracewear study of stone hunting weapons at the Byki upper Paleolithic site

A certain uniqueness of the Peny, Byki-1, Byki-2, 3 and Byki-7 sites (layers I, Ib, Ia, Ic) is manifested in the presence of a series of geometric triangles in sets of flint artifacts in the period of 19,000-16,000 B.P. (uncalibrated) and the fauna of the boreal subcomplex of the mammoth theriocomplex referred to the late Upper Paleolithic. The paper suggests that the flint triangles from the Byki sites should be viewed as an evidence of the earliest use of triangles as arrowheads in Europe around 18,000-16,000 B.P (uncalibrated), making these Byki triangles a special type of artifacts of the early - late Upper Paleolithic. There is correlation between the shape of the Byki triangles and their specific function and the way they were inserted into the shaft; such specific features set these triangles apart from other triangular microliths of the period in question.