Bracelet

The Mizyn site is well-known due to ancient art items discovered there. In particular, the graphic images on mammoth tusk bracelets are unique. Khvedir Vovk and Levko Chikalenko found one of them in 1912 during research of the site. This is a bracelet made of a solid wide plate of a curved ring shape. There are three round symmetrical holes on each edge. Probably, ancient humans used it for lacing. The outer side has an incised ornament in the form of alternating meander and zigzag patterns. These areas have a symmetrical location about the middle and ends of the bracelet. The central part of the product has six rows of meanders surrounded on two sides by rows of zigzags. Behind them, there is one more repeat of the meander motif: two rows on each side, which complete the composition.
The meander pattern from Mizyn is the oldest not only on the territory of Ukraine but also in the world. The most likely explanation for the origin of the meander ornament is that the image reproduces a natural pattern on a section of dentin of a tusk. An ancient master could not help noticing the rhythmic patterns under his burin. He borrowed and transferred them to his items. The impeccable ornamentation with stone tools (without a lathe and metal instruments like drills or burins) emphasizes the sophistication of the pattern.