DISC-SHAPED TOOLS OF THE BOTAI CULTURE

Abstract

In the article considers the question of the functional features of stone disks discovered at the Botai settlement in 2017-2021. Stone disks were multifunctional tools used in fishing, hunting, gathering, spinning. The presence of disc-shaped tools with geometric ornamentation suggests the sacred nature of such ancient instruments. It also confirms the existence of a primitive belief among the ancient Botai people - fetishism, when objects were assigned a sacred mystical characteristic. Puts forward a version that the Botai culture is the first to use stone disks on the territory of Kazakhstan. This is confirmed by previously published materials on the Atbasar culture of the Neolithic period, which is considered the main historical and cultural base for the Botai culture. The Atbasar culture is a collective culture of Neolithic sites on the territory of Northern and Central Kazakhstan. The well - known
data on the Atbasar culture indicate that drilling and grinding technologies were not developed in the Neolithic period on the territory of Kazakhstan. The author draws attention to the fact that it is possible that the Botai people were the first to use disc-shaped tools in several types of economic and cultural activities, giving them special sacred characteristics. At the same time, stone disks of the Eneolithic time are also found on the territory of the Kostanay region, belonging to the Tersek archaeological culture. But chronologically, the Tersek culture arose later than the Botai archaeological culture.