Study of the composition of pigments on the surface of a female statuette from the paleolithic site of Kostenka 1 by the infrared reflection spectroscopy

The structural and chemical composition of the colored layer located on the surface of a female statuette made of a mammoth tusk from the East Gravettian site of Kostenka 1, layer I, age of 23–21 thousand years, was studied using the IR reflection spectroscopy method. The site is located on the territory of the village of Kostenka in Khokholsky district of Voronezh region of Russia. The statuette was at the bottom of a storage pit with remnants of red paint. The paint layer on the figure consists of alumina and gypsum, the coloring pigments are mainly iron oxides. The obtained data allow to suggest that the technology used by the Paleolithic artist in painting the statuette of the Paleolithic Venus included a stage of preliminary preparation of the surface – priming of the treated surface using gypsum.