In the course of a summer expedition in Bodaibo District (Irkutsk Region) archeologists found a pencil, which is 6120 years old.
      
      The traces left on the pencil speak for the fact that it was very accurately polished in order to make it pointed.
      
      “It is 78 per cent graphite. The powder that remained after trimming was used to make paint. Though the pencil is more than one thousand years old, one can still write with it” - archeologist Evgenie Ineshin underlined.
      
      During the expedition researchers carried out salvage operations at Mamakan 6 – the site of an ancient settlement discovered by archeologists in 1998.
      
      Now Mamakan 6 is in danger: it is subjected to destroying impact of a ravine. The task of the expedition was to rescue ancient remains of early man’s activities in their natural state from the fossil bed.
      
      Source: zhelezyaka.com
Author: Vera Ivanova