Study of carbonates and molecular water in mammoth tusks from the Yudinovo paleolithic site

Fragments of mammoth tusk and handicrafts made from this material, which were found during excavations of the Yudinovo Upper Paleolithic Site (outskirts of village Yudinovo, Pogarskii district, Bryansk oblast, Russia), were studied by vibrational spectroscopy. The site consists of cultural horizons of different age, 15000–13500 BCE (lower) and 12500–12000 BCE (upper). The influence of the burial conditions on the relative content of A1, A2, and B carbonates and molecular water in the samples was studied. It is shown that the samples from the upper and lower cultural horizons of the site, according to the classification of carbonate distribution, correspond to apatite crystals of the А–В САр type. The factors affecting the spectroscopic characteristics of the samples were established, of which the lithological and moisture characteristics of the enclosing sediments should be considered the main ones.