This example is our first from the early Upper Paleolithic/Aurignacion (around 38 to 42,000 years ago) from the Kostenki 17/Layer 2 site. It was a very special tool made from a blade off of a prepared core, with a skillfull burin edge made on both sides.  This site was part of the Koystonki-Borshchyovo archaeological complex along the Don River in the Khokholsky District of Russia. Excavations started as far back as the mid 1800's, and the sites (numbered 1-26) span many archaeological time periods, and contain a wealth of stone tools and faunal material such as mammoths. Kostenki excavations are most well known from the human remains found, with a burial covered in red ochre(Kostenki 12/30,000 BP) and another from Kostenki 14 (around 35-40,000 BP). 
 
This artifact was molded and cast here for study reference, on generous loan from the Lowery Collection, originally deaccessioned 1960 Copenhagen Museum, National Museum of Denmark (Ex. Collection H. Pageault, Vienna: Ex. Dr. Hermann Meyer, Prehistoric Europe Archives, Germany).  (Cast opyright Occpaleo 2021)