%0 Journal Article %A Anderson, Mark %D 2016 %T A Possible Kostienki Knife from the Mainz Basin: The Key to an Eastern Gravettian Presence in Germany? %U https://figshare.com/articles/journal_contribution/A_Possible_Kostienki_Knife_from_the_Mainz_Basin_The_Key_to_an_Eastern_Gravettian_Presence_in_Germany_/4106325 %R 10.6084/m9.figshare.4106325.v1 %2 https://ndownloader.figshare.com/files/6635808 %K surface sites %K Mainz Basin %K Germany %K Kostienki knife %K microlithic triangle %K shouldered point %K leafpoint %K Upper Paleolithic %K Eastern Gravettian %K Late Gravettian %K Magdalenian %K volcanic materials %K Venus figurines %K art objects %K decorative objects %K portable art %K prehistoric art %K schematic representations %K pigments %K limestone %K heat exposure %K Archaeology %K Art %X Recently Klaric et al. (2015) have provided a wide-ranging discussion on the subject of Kostienki knives. Their article includes an overview of a century of research, in-depth functional analysis, and a precise, detailed definition based on material from two Russian sites: Zaraysk and Kostienki I. The authors conclude that at present true Kostienki knives are a strictly Eastern Gravettian phenomenon. Artifacts which have been classified as Kostienki knives in Middle Paleolithic, Aurignacian, Western Gravettian, and Magdalenian assemblages are at best morphological convergences which do not meet all the criteria put forward in the authors' definition. As a consequence, Klaric et al. dismiss all such published artifacts from German sites as misinterpretations.