Misteriosi circoli di ossa di mammut

[ARES III]

Misteriosi circoli di ossa di mammut rivelano indizi su come gli esseri umani sono riusciti a sopravvivere all’era glaciale

Strutture realizzate con decine di scheletri di mammut che venivano utilizzate da antiche comunità 

In Ucraina e nella pianura della Russia occidentale sono state trovate circa 70 strutture costituite da misteriosi circoli ricavati dai resti di decine di mammut che stanno rivelando indizi su come le antiche comunità umane siano riuscite a sopravvivere all’era glaciale

Un nuovo studio appena pubblicato su Antiquity da un team di ricercatori delle università di Exeter, Cambridge, Southampton, Colorado – Boulder e del Kostenki State Museum Preserve, dimostra che «Le ossa in un sito hanno più di 20.000 anni, rendendolo la più antica struttura circolare costruita dagli esseri umani scoperta nella regione». All’università di Exeter dicono che «Probabilmente le ossa provenivano da cimiteri di animali e il circolo era quindi nascosto dai sedimenti e ora è un piede (poco più di 30 cm, ndr) sotto l’attuale livello della superficie».

La maggior parte delle ossa trovate nella pianura russa, vicino al moderno villaggio di Kostenki, a circa 500 km a sud di Mosca, provengono da mammut. Gli archeologi hanno contato 51 mascelle inferiori e 64 singoli teschi di mammut che sono stati utilizzati per costruire le pareti della struttura di circa 3 metri per 3 e che sono stati sparsi al suo interno. Tra la massa di ossa di mammut sono state trovate anche poche ossa di renna, cavallo, orso, lupo, volpe rossa e volpe artica.

Per la prima volta, gli archeologi hanno anche scoperto all’interno della struttura circolare i resti di legno carbonizzato e altri resti di piante non legnose e sostengono che «Questo dimostra che le persone stavano bruciando legna e ossa come combustibile e le comunità che vivevano lì avevano imparato dove cercare le piante commestibili durante l’era glaciale. Le piante potrebbero anche essere state utilizzate per farne veleni, medicine, spago o tessuto. Sono stati trovati anche più di 50 piccoli semi carbonizzati – i resti di piante che crescono localmente o forse resti di cibo da cucinare e mangiare».

Il principale autore dello studio, Alexander Pryor, dell’università di Exeter, ha sottolineato che «Kostenki 11 rappresenta un raro esempio di cacciatori-raccoglitori paleolitici che vivevano in questo ambiente aspro. Chiaramente, alla costruzione di questa struttura sono stati dedicati un sacco di tempo e sforzi, quindi era ovviamente importante per le persone che l’hanno realizzata per qualche motivo. Cosa avrebbe potuto portare gli antichi raccoglitori di cacciatori in questo sito? Una possibilità è che i mammut e gli esseri umani potrebbero essere arrivati nell’area in massa perché c’era una sorgente naturale che forniva acqua liquida non congelata per tutto l’inverno, cosa rara in quel periodo di freddo estremo. Questi ritrovamenti hanno gettato nuova luce sullo scopo di questi siti misteriosi. L’archeologia ci sta mostrando di più su come i nostri antenati sono sopravvissuti in questo ambiente disperatamente freddo e ostile al culmine dell’ultima era glaciale. A quell’epoca, la maggior parte degli altri posti a latitudini simili in Europa era stata abbandonata, ma questi gruppi erano riusciti ad adattarsi per trovare cibo, riparo e acqua».

L’ultima era glaciale, che travolse il nord Europa tra 75 e 18.000 anni fa, raggiunse il suo stadio più freddo e circa 23 – 18.000 anni fa, proprio mentre veniva costruito il sito di Kostenki 11.  I ricercatori britannici spiegano che «Le ricostruzioni climatiche indicano che le estati erano brevi e fresche e gli inverni lunghi e freddi, con temperature intorno a -20 gradi Celsius o più fredde. La maggior parte delle comunità hanno lasciato la regione, probabilmente a causa della mancanza di prede per cacciare e piantare risorse da cui dipendevano per sopravvivere. Alla fine anche i circoli ossei furono abbandonati mentre il clima continuava a diventare più freddo e più inospitale».

Precedentemente gli archeologi avevano ipotizzato che le strutture circolari di ossa di mammut fossero state utilizzate come abitazioni, occupate per diversi mesi alla volta. Il nuovo studio suggerisce che potrebbe non essere stato così, dato che «L’intensità dell’attività umana a Kostenki 11 appare inferiore a quanto ci si aspetterebbe da un accampamento di lunga durata».

Altre scoperte includono il ritrovamento di più di 300 minuscoli frammenti di pietra e pietra focaia di pochi millimetri di dimensioni, detriti lasciati dagli abitanti del sito mentre tagliavano le pietre per farne strumenti affilati di forme diverse utilizzate per compiti come macellare animali e raschiare le pelli.

Pryor ha detto allo Smithsonian Magazine: «Ovviamente da un mammut ottieni molta carne, quindi l’idea che nel sito fossero in corso attività di trasformazione e conservazione degli alimenti è qualcosa che vogliamo approfondire».

Per altri strutture così grandi potrebbero avere avuto un utilizzo sacro e çPryor non scata questa ipotesi: «La gente ha anche speculato molto su un probabile elemento rituale a questo ed è davvero difficile dire cosa potrebbe essere stato. Il rituale fa parte della vita umana in tutti i modi. Il fatto che avessero progettato una struttura di questo tipo come parte del loro rituale e delle loro attività di sostentamento è molto ragionevole».

Costruzioni d realizzate con ossa di mammut sono ben note agli archeologi. Strutture simili sono state trovate in tutta l’Europa orientale, ma sono molto più piccole di Kostenki 11 e risalgono a 22.000 anni fa. I ricercatori li consideravano abitazioni o “case mammut” che aiutavano i loro costruttori a far fronte alle temperature gelide dell’ultima era glaciale. La nuova struttura scoperta a Kostenki nel 2014, ha 3000 anni in più di quelle “capanne” ed è molto più grande. Come spiega Marjolein Bosch dell’università di Cambridge «Le dimensioni della struttura la rendono eccezionale nel suo genere e la sua costruzione avrebbe richiesto molto tempo. Questo implica che doveva durare, forse come punto di riferimento, un luogo di incontro, un luogo di importanza cerimoniale o un luogo in cui tornare quando le condizioni diventarono così dure che era necessario un riparo».
in effetti le dimensioni pure della struttura la rendono improbabile come casa dove abitare quotidianamente e Pryor fa notare: «Non posso immaginare come avrebbero potuto coprire questa struttura».

Le case dei mammut più piccole presentano focolari per la cottura più precisi e contengono i resti di renne, cavalli e volpi, il che suggerisce che le persone che ci vivevano predassero qualsiasi cosa potessero trovare nella zona. Come si è visto, nella struttura più grande i resti degli altri anmali sono pochissimi e Pryor conferma: «’ costruita quasi esclusivamente con mammut lanosi e questa è una delle cose più interessanti. Senza altre ossa di animali, questo non assomiglia molto a un’abitazione dove la gente viveva per un po’».

Ma l’incredibile ritrovamento delle ossa di oltre 60 mammut tutte insieme solleva un’altra domanda: da dove venivano? Gli scienziati non sono sicuri se questi giganteschi animali siano stati cacciati, portati via da loro cimiteri o entrambe le cose. Pat Shipman, della Pennsylvania State University ha detto allo Smithsonian Magazine che «Ci deve essere qualcosa nella topografia del sito che lo rendeva un luogo nel quale, passavano continuamente branchi di mammut che potevano essere uccisi oppure che restavano uccisi naturalmente, come nell’attraversamento di un fiume. Non riesco a immaginare in che modo delle persone potrebbero uccidere 60 mammut alla volta, perché i proboscidati (l’ordine dei mammiferi a cui appartengono sia i mammut che gli elefanti viventi) sono intelligenti e attaccano se i membri della loro mandria vengono uccisi, anche con le moderne armi automatiche».

Inoltre, diverse ossa dei mammut erano disposte nello stesso ordine e posizione dello scheletro e questo significa che quando sono state portate nel sito erano ancora attaccate al resto del corpo (pelle, muscoli e tendini) e che quindi i nostri antichi antenati le avrebbero portate lì prima che i carnivori avessero la possibilità di mangiarli e ripulire le ossa. Questo implica che gli antichi costruttori dei circoli di ossa accedessero per primi alle carcasse di mammut».
La Shipman conclude: «Vorrei sapere se le ossa sono state trasformate o trasportate o se stiamo esaminando scheletri interi o carcasse ammucchiati per un uso futuro. Spostare un mammut morto non può essere stato facile anche se fosse stato in gran parte disseccato.

https://greenreport.it/news/i-misteriosi-circoli-di-ossa-di-mammut-rivelano-indizi-su-come-gli-esseri-umani-sono-riusciti-a-sopravvivere-allera-glaciale/

Modificato 10 Giugno, 2023 da ARES III

[ARES III]

Massive Mammoth-Bone Structure Found in Kostenki, Russia

EXETER, ENGLAND—Haaretz reports that a circular structure measuring about 41 feet in diameter has been found near western Russia’s Don River by an international team of researchers led by Alexander Pryor of the University of Exeter. Two smaller mammoth-bone circles have been found nearby. Made of the bones of at least 60 mammoths, the newly uncovered bone circle is thought to be 25,000 years old. Traces of scattered wood fires, burned bones, food remains, and a few stone tools have been found within it, but the researchers suggest Paleolithic people did not consume daily meals at the site. It had been previously thought that bones were the only fuel available to people who built such Ice Age shelters. “The growth ring widths in the charcoal we recovered are mostly very narrow, suggesting that trees were clinging on at the edge of their tolerance limits,” Pryor explained. He added that some of the bones in the ring were articulated, indicating they had been added to the structure along with their cartilage and fat, making the dwelling a smelly draw for wolves, foxes, and other scavengers. Future research will investigate if the structure could have been used for food storage or as a winter gathering place. To read about a mammoth skeleton discovered on a Michigan farm, go to "Leftover Mammoth."

 

 

https://www.archaeology.org/news/8531-200318-russia-mammoth-bones

[ARES III]

 

This Mysterious Ancient Structure Was Made of Mammoth Bones

The ring of skulls, skeletons, tusks and other bones was too large for a roof, scientists say, so what was it for?

 

A 25,000-year-old circle of mammoth bones discovered in 2014, located about 300 miles south of Moscow.Credit...A.E. Dudin

 

 

 

Ice Age hunter-gatherers, foraging the bone-chilling, unforgiving steppes of what today is Russia, somehow completed a remarkable construction project: a 40-foot-wide, circular structure made from the skulls, skeletons and tusks of more than 60 woolly mammoths. The reason remains a mystery to archaeologists.

“The sheer number of bones that our Paleolithic ancestors had sourced from somewhere and brought to this particular location to build this monument is really quite staggering,” said Alexander Pryor, an archaeologist at the University of Exeter in England. “It does boggle my mind.”

Alexander Dudin, a researcher from the Kostenki Museum-Preserve, and a team of scientists began excavating the 25,000-year-old mammoth-bone circle in 2014 at a site called Kostenki 11, which is 300 miles south of Moscow. It is the third structure uncovered at the site. The discovery was published Monday in the journal Antiquity.

Archaeologists have unearthed about 70 mammoth-bone structures across Eastern Europe. But this one is the oldest on the Russian plain thought to be made by modern humans. Most of the previously identified structures were small, leading researchers to conclude they were most likely used as winter dwellings on a nearly treeless landscape.

But the researchers said this circle was too large for a roof, which might suggest it was used for a different purpose.

“There are more than 60 mammoths in this one structure,” said David Beresford-Jones, an environmental archaeologist at the University of Cambridge and an author on the paper. He added, “It doesn’t make much sense, really, as a house.”

 

Layers of rock showing signs that fires were burned at the site. One hypothesis was that burning greasy mammoth bones aided hunter-gatherers as they tried to strip meat off the mammoths before wolves and foxes arrived to try to seize the haul.Credit...A.J.E. Pryor

 

 

The team suggested that the hunter-gatherers instead might have butchered massive mammoth carcasses at the site and then stored the meat and fat in nearby permafrost as if in an ancient refrigerator.

Dr. Pryor arrived at Kostenki 11 in 2015 and quickly went shoeless, tiptoeing so that he wouldn’t crush any of the hundreds of mammoth bones scattered around the site. The ring, which also included ribs, jaws and leg bones, had probably been piled 20 inches high before collapsing thousands of years ago, he said.

 

The team collected sediment samples from inside the bone circle and from three large pits located outside.

 

Through further processing, they identified more than 400 charcoal pieces, evidence of wood-burning. The charcoal came from conifers such as spruce, larch and pine, suggesting that trees still grew in the harsh, frozen environment. They also radiocarbon-dated the charcoal, which further supported that the site was about 25,000 years old.

They also found burned mammoth bones, which indicated that the Paleolithic people were probably starting fires with wood and then using the beasts’ greasy bones to feed the flames. Bone-fueled fires burn brighter than wood fires, but spread less warmth.

“You won’t produce a nice good fire for roasting your mammoth meat on,” Dr. Beresford-Jones said. But the flames would have allowed the hunter-gatherers to work through the night to hastily strip meat off mammoth bones before hungry wolves and foxes arrived to try to seize the haul.

 

The team also uncovered plant material similar to what is seen in modern parsnips, carrots and potatoes. This suggested that the Paleolithic people may have supplemented their mammoth meals with vegetable side dishes.

 

Excavating the Kostenki 11 site. When Dr. Pryor first arrived there in 2015, he removed his shoes, tiptoeing so that he wouldn’t crush any of the fragile bones scattered around the site.Credit...A.E. Dudin

 

 

Mietje Germonpré, an archaeozoologist at the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences in Brussels, and who was not involved in the study, called the paper a “truly unique discovery,” and said its findings were sound.

Paul Pettitt, an archaeologist at Durham University in England, applauded the team for the methods they used to recover ancient charcoal from the dirt. But he said it could not be ruled out that the structure might have been used as a cozy home during the long winters, which could reach minus 4 degrees Fahrenheit.

The team acknowledged that they did not fully solve the mystery of how the mammoth-bone circle was used. They still do not know whether the hunter-gatherers killed or scavenged the beasts, how long the location was used or if it held any ritualistic importance.

“These woolly-mammoth circular structures are really enigmatic, but they are hugely impressive,” Dr. Pryor said. “They speak to a time when our human ancestors were battling against the coldest and harshest and most difficult point of the last glacial cycle in Europe.”

 

 https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/17/science/mammoth-bones-circle.html

[ARES III]

The Kostenki - Borshevo, Костенки - Борщево region on the Don River

 

Kostenki is a very important Paleolithic site on the Don River in the Russia. It was a settlement which contained venus figures, dwellings made of mammoth bones, and many flint tools and bone implements. Kostenki / Kostienki is not actually a single site but really an area on the right bank of the Don River in the regions of the villages of Kostenki and Borshevo, consisting of more than twenty site locations, all dating to the Paleolithic.
 

 

 

View of the village of Kostenki from high ground above the settlement near the Don River, visible to the right of the houses. A distant loop of the Don may be seen in the background.

The view 35 000 years ago in late summer would have been very similar, but there would have been many fewer trees (spruce, and the plants which typically accompany it, such as the lesser club moss or spikemoss Selaginella selaginoides, as well as larch, willow and aspen), and then only along the edge of the river as a gallery forest, and the trees would have been much smaller because of the harsher climatic conditions, equivalent to those prevailing now 10 degrees further north, at around 61° north. The river would have been smaller also, since there was less precipitation, and the viewpoint would have been only a few metres in altitude above the river. Springs and seeps, which are still present in the area today, emanated from the bedrock valley wall. Their presence may account for the unusually high concentration of Upper Paleolithic sites in this part of the central East European Plain.

A series of uplifts over the last 35 000 years created three terraces, raising the viewpoint nearly seventy metres above the river.
 

The villages of Kostenki and Borshevo are located in the Don Valley, roughly forty kilometres south of Voronezh. The western slope of the Don Valley in the vicinity of the villages and for some

distance further south forms the eastern boundary of the Central Russian Upland, the eastern slope, the western boundary of the Tambov Lowland. The eastern part of the Central Russian Upland, in contrast to the Tambov Lowland, appears to have been undergoing continued uplift, and partly as a consequence, the Don Valley in the Kostenki - Borshevo region is markedly asymmetrical - the western slope is quite steep, the eastern one quite gentle.

(Klein, "Man and Culture in the Late Pleistocene", 1969)

(Thus the Don River flows down the fault line between the uplifted Central Russian Upland and the Tambov Lowland. This fortuitous circumstance means that there developed a geological method of preserving the evidence of habitation in this area. The uplift provided ravines and associated springs for water during winter, and also provided high ground above the river terraces which gradually covered the settlements by colluvial action, as well as successive uplifts of the land, so that successive settlements were separated first (vertically) by colluvial sediments and secondly by the uplift, leading to the settlements being separated by

(horizontal) distance as well on the three main terraces.

Further, modern settlers found the area to be congenial, and sunk house foundations and cellars which uncovered the mammoth bones which first alerted people to the unusual nature of the area, and erosion of the ravines also provided access to evidence of previous settlements. However the houses are scattered widely over the area, and excavations of sites can be made without greatly inconveniencing the local population, as would be the case in a large town or city. There is a good road to the region from a major city not far away, but the road does not cross the area of interest, which is serviced by a network of minor, mostly dirt roads. The area is not under threat of flooding or other disturbance, and the area is politically stable, so long term careful explorations can be made.

A (dateable) fall of volcanic ash conveniently delineates the oldest sediments from the younger ones.

 

Archaeologists could hardly ask for more. - Don)


 

 

 

Kostenki Panoramas. The Museum may be seen in both photos, and the Don River in the right background of the second photo.

[ARES III]

 

Map of sites in the Kostenki-Borshevo district during the Wurm glaciation.

Photo: Vladimir Gorodnjanski 2014
Source: Kostenki Museum

 

Map of sites in the Kostenki-Borshevo district during the Würm glaciation.

Photo: Dinnis et al. (2018)

 

Distribution of mobile art in Eastern Europe.

1 Staryé Duruitory, 2 Brynzeny, 3 Kosseoutzy, 4 Klimaoutzy, 5 Suren' 1, 6 Chan-Koba, 7 Apiantcha, 8 grotte d'Uvarov, 9 Sakagia, 10 Sagvardgilé, 11 Gvardgilas-Kldé, 12 Devis-Khvreli, 13 Taro-Kldé, 14 Molodova V, 15 Lissitchniki, 16 Lipa VI, 17 Klinetz, 18 Ossokorovka, 19 Dubovaya Balka, 20 Kaïstrovaya Balka, 21 Mejiritch (Mezhirich), 22 Kievo-Kirillovskaya, 23 Mézine (Mezin), 24 Novgorod Severskyi, 25 Puchkari I, 26 Dobranitchevka, 27 Gontzy, 28, Rogalik, 29 Amvrossievka, 30 Eliseevitchi I, 31 Eliseevitchi II, 32 Yudinovo, 33 Khoylevo II, 34 Timonovka, 35 Suponevo, 36 Avdeevo, 37 Sungir', 38 Gagarino, 39 Kostienki 19, 40 Kostienki 21, 41 Kostienki 13, 42 Kostienki 1, 43 Kostienki 14, 44 Kostienki 12, 45 Kostienki 17, 46 Kostienki 2, 47 Kostienki 11, 48 Kostienki 4, 49 Kostienki 15, 50 Kostienki 9, 51 Kostienki 8, 52 Borchtchevo 1, 53 Borchtchevo 2, 54 Ilskaya, 55 Murakovka, 56 Ostrovskaya, 57 Bez'imyannyi, 58 Smelobskaya, 59 Kapova, 60 Ignatievskaya.
 

Locations of Eastern European sites of the Kostenki Late Gravettian culture

 

The main display room in the Kostenki Museum shows a dig partially excavated, with the remains of mammoths strewn across the floor. Mammoth bones and tusks were used as structural supports for houses constructed during the last ice age. The dig was originally Kostenki 11, and was discovered in 1949 when a local villager, Ivan Ivanovich Protopopov, was digging a hole for a cellar.

[ARES III]

 

The display in the Kostenki Museum.

Photo: Vladimir Gorodnjanski 2011
Source: Kostenki Museum

 

The display in the Kostenki Museum.

Photo: Vladimir Gorodnjanski 2011
Source: Kostenki Museum

 

Mammoth bones used for the construction of houses during the last ice age at Kostenki.

Photo: Vladimir Gorodnjanski 2006
Source: Kostenki Museum

 

ПРОЦЕСС ИССЛЕДОВАНИЯ СТОЯНКИ КОСТЕНКИ 11 | «А» КУЛЬТУРНОГО СЛОЯ

New bone structure discovered at Kostenki 11

The newly-discovered mammoth-bone structure at the site of Kostenki 11. The two visible scales are 5 and 6 m long, respectively.

( The photograph is taken from the roof of the existing museum. The museum protects the original Kostenki 11 site from weather, and allows it to be viewed from a walkway above by researchers, students, and the general public - Don )

Image credit: A.E. Dudin.

 

Modern humans who first arose in Africa had moved into Europe as far back as about 25 000 years ago, according to a new study by an international research team led by the Russian Academy of Sciences and the University of Colorado at Boulder.

The evidence consists of stone, bone and ivory tools discovered beside the Don River in Russia, some 250 miles south of Moscow, said John Hoffecker, a fellow of CU-Boulder's Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research. The site also has yielded perforated shell ornaments and a carved piece of mammoth ivory that appears to be

the head of a small human figurine.

'The big surprise here is the very early presence of modern humans in one of the coldest, driest places in Europe,' Hoffecker said. 'It is one of the last places we would have expected people from Africa to occupy first.'

A paper by Michael Anikovich and Andrei Sinitsyn of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Hoffecker, and 13 other researchers was published in the Jan. 12 issue of Science.

The excavation took place at Kostenki, a group of more than 20 sites along the Don River that have been under study for many decades. Kostenki previously has yielded anatomically modern human bones and artefacts dating between 30 000 and 40 000 years old, including the oldest firmly dated bone and ivory needles with eyelets that indicate the early inhabitants were tailoring animal furs to help them survive the harsh climate.

Most of the stone used for making tools at the newly discovered site was imported from between 60 miles and 100 miles away, while the perforated shell ornaments discovered at the lowest levels of the Kostenki dig were imported from the Black Sea more than 300 miles away, he said. 'Although

[ARES III]

human skeletal remains in the earliest level of the excavation are confined to isolated teeth, which are notoriously difficult to assign to specific human types, the artefacts are unmistakably the work of modern humans,' Hoffecker said.

The sediment overlying the artefacts was dated by several methods, including optically stimulated luminescence dating - which helps them determine how long ago materials were last exposed to daylight - as well as palaeomagnetic dating based on known changes in the orientation and intensity of Earth's magnetic field and radiocarbon calibration.

Anatomically modern humans are thought to have arisen in sub-Saharan Africa around 200 000 years ago.

Kostenki also contains evidence that modern humans were rapidly broadening their diet to include small mammals and freshwater aquatic foods, an indication they were 'remaking themselves technologically,' he said. They may have used traps and snares to catch hares and arctic foxes, exploiting large areas of the environment with relatively little energy. 'They probably set out their nets and traps and went home for lunch,' he said.

 

A:

Relative locations of three mammoth-bone features from Kostenki 11-Ia (image credit: I.V. Fedyunin of LLC ‘Terra’). Feature 1 is preserved today in the Kostenki Museum.

B: plan of the third mammoth-bone structure as it appeared at the end of the 2015 excavation season. Sampling locations for floated sediments are indicated by black rectangles (plan by E.M. Ikonnikova & A.E. Dudin).

The newly discovered mammoth-bone structure is located approximately 20m west and slightly upslope of the first discovered structure, also in layer K11-Ia (Figure 1; Dudin & Fedyunin in press).

At the time of discovery, this area was covered with birch, pear and cherry trees, together with shrubby undergrowth. As the uppermost bones of the structure lay within 0.6m of the modern ground surface, and partly within the B-horizon of the modern soil, much of layer K11-Ia was disturbed by modern tree and shrub roots and animal burrows. Nonetheless, the bones themselves were remarkably well preserved and appeared to lie largely intact and undisturbed in their original positions.

Source and text: Pryor et al. (2020)

 

Dates: Circa 25 000 cal BP - 24 000 cal BP

 

Mammoth vertebrae.

Photo: Vladimir Gorodnjanski 2014
Source: Kostenki Museum

 

Mammoth bones

Photo: Vladimir Gorodnjanski 2014
Source: Kostenki Museum

 

Mammoth mandible and teeth.

Photo: Vladimir Gorodnjanski 2014
Source: Kostenki Museum

 

Ожерелье, клыки песца, муляж

Necklace of fox teeth.

Photo: Vladimir Gorodnjanski 2014
Source: Facsimile, Kostenki Museum

 

Kostenki, 25 000 BP - The use of this pierced rod is uncertain, though it must have been a tool. Similar objects were found in the Sungir burial on the belt of the younger of the two boys.

Photo: Ralph Frenken
Source: Original, exhibited at the Archeological Museum Hamburg (Ice Age - The Art of the Mammoth Hunters from 18 October 2016 to 14 May 2017)
On loan from the Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg, Russia.

Modificato 10 Giugno, 2023 da ARES III

[ARES III]

 

 

Kostenki, 25 000 BP.

If only the heads of animal figures are preserved, it is often difficult to determine the type of animal.

However, the top two images and the one on the left are of cave lions.

Photo: Ralph Frenken
Source and text: Original, exhibited at the Archeological Museum Hamburg (Ice Age - The Art of the Mammoth Hunters from 18 October 2016 to 14 May 2017)
On loan from the Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg, Russia.

 

 

Kostenki, 25 000 BP.

Bear head.

Photo: Ralph Frenken
Source and text: Original, exhibited at the Archeological Museum Hamburg (Ice Age - The Art of the Mammoth Hunters from 18 October 2016 to 14 May 2017)
On loan from the Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg, Russia.

 

Kostenki, 25 000 BP.

Bear head.

Photo: Ralph Frenken
Source and text: Original, exhibited at the Archeological Museum Hamburg (Ice Age - The Art of the Mammoth Hunters from 18 October 2016 to 14 May 2017)
On loan from the Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg, Russia.

 

Kostenki, 25 000 BP.

In this limestone plate the outlines of a woman were engraved, which in their proportions correspond to the general picture of other ice age women's statuettes.

Photo: Ralph Frenken
Source and text: Original, exhibited at the Archeological Museum Hamburg (Ice Age - The Art of the Mammoth Hunters from 18 October 2016 to 14 May 2017)
On loan from the Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg, Russia.

 

 

Kostenki, 25 000 BP.

This object was carved from reindeer antler, and probably shows a human figure with an offset head and narrow legs.

Photo: Ralph Frenken
Source and text: Original, exhibited at the Archeological Museum Hamburg (Ice Age - The Art of the Mammoth Hunters from 18 October 2016 to 14 May 2017)
On loan from the Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg, Russia.

 

Kostenki, 25 000 BP.

This limestone head was not a part of female statue, but was made as a separate piece. It shows a face, indicated by engravings.

Photo: Ralph Frenken
Source and text: Original, exhibited at the Archeological Museum Hamburg (Ice Age - The Art of the Mammoth Hunters from 18 October 2016 to 14 May 2017)
On loan from the Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg, Russia.

 

 

Kostenki, 25 000 BP.

Modificato 10 Giugno, 2023 da ARES III

[ARES III]

 

This limestone head was not a part of female statue, but was made as a separate piece. It shows embellishments which can be interpreted as either a head covering or as hair.

Photo: Ralph Frenken
Source and text: Original, exhibited at the Archeological Museum Hamburg (Ice Age - The Art of the Mammoth Hunters from 18 October 2016 to 14 May 2017)
On loan from the Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg, Russia.

Kostenki 1 - Kostenki I - Polyakov Site

Text below from Grigor'ev (1967)

Kostenki I is one of the most important of the famous group of Late Pleistocene occupation sites found in the vicinity of Kostenki-on-the-Don, about 40 km south of Voronezh. Systematic investigation of Kostenki 1 was begun by I.S. Polyakov in 1879 ("Polyakov's site" is still an alternative designation for Kostenki I) and continued sporadically by a series of workers, among whom the two latest, P.P. Efimenko (working at Kostenki I in 1923, 1926, 1931-1934, and 1936) and A.N. Rogachev (working in 1938, 1948, 1951, and 1953) have contributed most to our knowledge of the site.

Five distinct occupation horizons have been disclosed at Kostenki I. These all occur in a series of deposits overlying the second suprafloodplain terrace of the Don. The stratigraphy within these deposits has been repeatedly and intensively studied (see especially Grishchenko 1950, Lazukov 1957, and Velichko 1961: 197-212), and those of the other sites in the vicinity have been largely established (see especially Rogachev 1957:122) Recently, the application of radiocarbon dating to materials from the Kostenki

sites has shown great promise of providing a substantial basis for the temporal comparison of the Kostenki occupation horizons with those from far-distant sites. Of particular relevance in the context of this note is the date of 14 020 ± 60 BP (GIN-86, Cherdyntsev et al. 1965:1414) obtained on charred bone from the uppermost level of Kostenki I.

By far the most extensively excavated and best-known occupation level at Kostenki I is the uppermost. In addition to presumed remains structure(s), the reconstruction of which is the subject of the paper to follow, the uppermost level has yielded a large assemblage of flint artefacts (including numerous burins, endscrapers, backed blades, shouldered points, etc), a sizeable quantity of bone artefacts (including various objects called polishers, points, mattocks etc), and a considerable collection of bone art, including approximately 50 female statuettes, mostly fragmentary, and some animal figurines. Most numerous among the faunal remains removed from the uppermost level were those of mammoth and horse, but bones of arctic fox, lion, bear, wolf, red deer, reindeer, hare, and rodents were also present.

present.
 

Единственное документальное свидетельство самых обширных дореволюционных раскопок С.А.Круковского 1915 года - разобранная им яма, всего лишь «задевшая» богатейший культурный слой Костенок 1.

The only documentary evidence of the most extensive pre-revolutionary excavations by SA Krukovsky in 1915 - the dig managed to just catch the edge of the richest cultural layer of Kostenki 1.

Photo: Vladimir Gorodnjanski 2011
Source: Kostenki Museum

 

Начало планомерного исследования стоянки костенки 1.

Раскопки П.П. Ефименко 1923 года на усадьбе И.А. Аносоваm в ходе которых была найдена первая, хорошо сохранившаяся женская статуэтка.

Starting the systematic study of Kostenki 1 in 1923, after the creation of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) in 1922.

These are the excavations by P.P. Yefimenko at the homestead of IA Anosov, in the course of which was found the first well-preserved female figurine.

Photo: Vladimir Gorodnjanski 2014
Source: Kostenki Museum

 

A small hole in the Kostenki 1 sediments around which is gathered a group of scientists from around the world for the conference at Kostenki in 2004.

[ARES III]

 

Mammoth shoulderblade, Kostenki 1.

Photo: Vladimir Gorodnjanski 2014
Source: Kostenki Museum

 

Lion head in ivory, Kostenki 1.

Photo: http://www.arretetonchar.fr/

 

Miniature lion head, Kostenki 1.

Despite being tiny, this sculpture is realistic and vivacious.

Marl (soft, chalky limestone), height 15 mm.

Photo and text: Cook (2013)
Source: Kunstkamera, St Petersburg

 

Kostenki, 25 000 BP.

Lion head.

Photo: Ralph Frenken
Source and text: Original, exhibited at the Archeological Museum Hamburg (Ice Age - The Art of the Mammoth Hunters from 18 October 2016 to 14 May 2017)
On loan from the Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg, Russia.

 

A collection of stone tools from Kostenki 1.

Excavations in 2005.

(Note the classic Kostenki shouldered or tanged point on the extreme right of the middle row of the photo on the right - Don)

 

Sculptures of mammoths, Kostenki 1.

The domed head and sloping back of an adult mammoth is quite distinctive.

Marl (soft, chalky limestone) and red ochre, height (left) 28 mm, height (right) 37 mm.

Photo and text: Cook (2013)

 

Mammoth sculpture as in the right hand photograph above. This appears to be a facsimile.

Photo: Vladimir Gorodnjanski 2014
Source: The Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg

The Kostenki - Borshevo sites are a group of more than twenty settlements from the same culture on the right bank of the Don River, south of Voronezh, in the region of the next two villages - Kostenki and Borshevo .

The basic excavations were conducted in the 1920s - 1930s by P. Yefimenko, and in the 1940s - 1960s by A. N. Rogachev.

The research performed here played an important role in the development of modern techniques of excavation of palaeolithic settlements, and in the understanding of the problems which palaeolithic dwellings were designed to solve, female images as sculptures, in the allocation of late palaeolithic cultures to categories, and the establishment of their mutual relations.

Kostenki I (Polyakov site) contained five cultural layers. In the upper layer were preserved the remains of dwellings within an area of 35m by 15m, arranged in lines, with the hearths located along the central longitudinal axis of the dwellings, together with storage pits. Flint tools, hoes made from mammoth tusks, bone digging implements, a baton from deer horn, about forty female statuettes made from both ivory and marl/limestone, figurines of a bear, cavelion and anthropomorphous marl heads.
 

[ARES III]

Triangular flint tools are found in the lowermost layer with a concave base, retouched with a pressure process.
 

Стоянка Костенки 1 ( Воронежская область) - Kostenki Site (Voronezh Region)

15. Наконечники с боковой выемкой - points with a tang for hafting, perhaps as a knife.

These 'shouldered points' from Kostenki 1 are very typical of the Kostenki toolkit.

Photo: Vladimir Gorodnjanski, 2007
Source: The Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg

 

 

Digging sticks from Kostenki ( apparently made from mammoth tusks. These would have been used in the construction of houses, since there was certainly no agriculture - Don).

* The Kostenki 1 type of artefacts, known as the Kostienki - Avdeevo culture, is the only Kostenki cultural entity known from four sites, but it is also found outside the Kostienki area.

* All sites are located in the Prokrovsky ravine and probably represent the remains of a large residential area.

* The culture is characterised by a specific type of spatial organisation, represented by a large house (36 x 14-15 metres) with many hearths in a line on the longitudinal axis of the house, surrounded by semi-subterranean buildings dug out to a depth of one metre and with deposits in pits.

* The three signature Kostienki fossils are the association of realistic female statuettes, notched points to specific dimensions and knives of the a specific Kostienki type. Subsequently, the number of individual typological features of this unit of local cultural Eastern Europe has increased, but the importance of this association remains the diagnostic criterion of this culture.

 

The end of a spatula made of mammoth bone, 15 cm long, from the Gravettian of Kostenki 1. This artefact is similar to one in the drawing above, at the bottom left.

Photo: http://www.arretetonchar.fr/

 

 

Carved diadem, an ornamental headband from Kostenki 1, as shown in the drawing from Sinitsyn (2007) above. Facsimile.

This image shows clearly the curve of the diadem.

Photo: Vladimir Gorodnjanski 2014
Source: The Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg

 

Fragment of the diadem from Kostenki 1 above.

Note that this image shows clearly that there is at least one hole through the object.

[ARES III]

 

Diadem, an ornamental headband from Kostenki. Facsimile.

Photo: Vladimir Gorodnjanski

 

Piece of a bracelet from Kostienki 1 decorated with a geometric pattern

Engraving of a mammoth on a flat stone. It appears to be limestone which has been artificially made planar to accept the engraving.

Photo: Vladimir Gorodnjanski 2007
Source: The Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg

 

A line drawing of the engraving of the mammoth, shown above.

Photo: Vladimir Gorodnjanski 2007
Source: The Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg

 

Left: Scraper
Right: Point

Kostenki.

(Note that the piece on the right seems to have been completed in poor quality stone - Don )

Photo: Vladimir Gorodnjanski 2014
Source: The Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg

 

Spatula, Kostenki

Photo: Vladimir Gorodnjanski 2014
Source: The Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg   A sunken floored hut from Kostienki I. A fireplace is shaded on the floor, covered by mammoth tusks, which probably supported the roof. Photo: K. Sklenar, 'Hunters of the Stone Age'

 

Plan de la première structure d'habitat de Kostienki I, couche 1, d'après P. P. Yefimenko. Reconstitution spatiale des représentations animalières d'après L. Iakovleva.

Plan of the first hut of Kostienki I, layer 1, according to P. P. Yefimenko. Plan of the representation of animal remains according to L Iakovleva.

Photo and French text: "les mammouths - Dossiers Archéologie - n° 291 - Mars 2004"


My thanks to Anya for access to this resource.

Note also the plan of the same Horizon I house, Kostienki I below after Klein, R.G. 1973.

Plan of Horizon I house, Kostienki I after Klein, R.G. 1973. Ice-Age Hunters of the Ukraine. Univ. of Chicago.

Note the alternative plan above, showing animal remains, from the source "les mammouths - Dossiers Archéologie - n° 291 - Mars 2004".

The text below is from the very useful book 'The Prehistory of Europe' 1980 by Patricia Phillips (Allen Lane)

This structure described by Klein comes from the loess-like loams overlying the upper humic bed in the Kostienki-Borshevo terraces. Kostienki 1, Horizon 1, was excavated in the 1930s, and reconstructed as a 'long house' 35 metres long by approximately 16 metres wide. This colossal area encompassed nine hearth pits, mostly down the centre line of the structure, and sixteen large pits around the periphery, four of them interpreted as sleeping areas and twelve as caches, full of mammoth bone.

[ARES III]

The rest of the floor of the supposed structure was covered with a series of little pits, again regarded as caches. Klein is not convinced by the interpretation of the structure as a single long house. The agglomeration of features is certainly of great interest, however, as is also the presence of a series of animal figurines, and bone artifacts including possible 'head' bands with incised decoration. Six female figurines from the site were made of local limestone (marl) and ivory (Klein, 1969b) (Fig. 29). Many fragmentary remains of figurines were also found. The figurines are decorated with bands incised around the waist and above the breast. Larger bone artifacts include possible mattocks. The famous Kostienki points, which are elongated flint points with an asymmetrically placed tang, have been examined by Semenov for evidence of microwear (1964). He has concluded that they were used as knives.

Another Kostienki site, No. IV, Horizon 1, consisted of two depressions 6 m apart and approximately 6 m in diameter, considered to represent hut floors. The original huts may have been larger as the finds distribution is wider than that of the actual depressions and extends particularly to the south-west where, it is suggested, the doorway was. The excavators believe that points with burin facets on the proximal end may

have been used as whittle knives, with the burin end inserted into a handle. Other interesting finds from this site include ground slate discs 3 to 6 cm in diameter which, it is suggested, were used to retouch the flints. In addition there were dotdecorated stylized figurines in ivory, and ivory rods and bone 'clothes fasteners'. Bones from Horizons I and 11 at Kostienki IV were not separated during excavation, but it is assumed that woolly rhinoceros and cave lion at least derived from Horizon 1. As with the other Ukrainian sites previously mentioned, pits occurred in the Kostienki IV-I habitation units, the western hut containing eight pits in the centre, all under a layer of heavy grey ash. In the eastern depression, there were six ash-filled pits and others which seemed to have served as caches. Sandstone slabs around the periphery may have had something to do with the original wall structure, and two cave lion crania found on the top of the deposit are suggested to have been used to crown the original tents. Klein has suggested that from the calories available in the form of animals the different sites in the Kostienki-Borshevo region could have been occupied from as long as forty-three days to four years. He suggests that the sites represent longish occupation, probably during the winter.

East European archaeologists are particularly interested in the origin of raw materials used in Palaeolithic sites, and in the wear marks visible on the retouched tools; for instance, at the Kostienki sites, brown and yellow flint and quartzite are of local origin, but the black flint brought in as blanks is not. Petrographic analysis has proved that some of the black flint comes from approximately 150 km to the south-west, from the valleys of the Valuj and the Oskol rivers. Other black flint may come from as far as 300 km away.
 

Kostienki I is sometimes also called Polyakovo. P P Yefimenko did some research there during 1931 to 1936, and A N Rogatchev researched during 1938. Yefimenko uncovered an oval-shaped settlement measuring 14 to 15 metres by 36 metres, where numerous tools were found in the deposits inside the dwelling, although only a few implements occurred outside. It is possible that the living room was surrounded by some kind of walls. At the edge of this settlement Yefimenko found four large pits filled with deposits, and he called them the winter hut-pits. He also found twelve smaller ones which were used to keep bones in. If the building covered the whole area, as Yefimenko assumes, the pits at the edge could then be remains of the construction. It is more likely, however, that only part of the area was covered, a fact indicated by the finds. Semi-subterranean hut-pit 'A' could be described as one of

the larger dwellings. It is about 2 metres by 3.5 metres and has a small terraced passage leading to the outside. A mammoth tusk and two shoulder-blades were found here with which the entrance could be covered up. Mammoth shoulder-blades were also used in the Upper Palaeolithic to cover graves, so that it is not surprising that they were also used to build huts. A similar entrance at the back of the hut was also found; it was shorter and steeper. But this could have been some kind of light shaft.
 

P. P. Yefimenko (1884 - 1969)

Photo: Vladimir Gorodnjanski, 2014
Source: Display at Kostenki Museum

The floor of the hut-pit was more or less flat and showed outlines of two circles. One of them was larger and had a fireplace in the centre. The smaller circle had two layers of bones. The upper layer consisted mainly of shoulder-blades, hip-bones, and tusks of the mammoth. The lower layer, which was level with the floor of the hut, consisted mainly of tusks which were laid with the points turned

inwards towards the centre of the room. They were fairly regularly spaced. This was presumably the supporting framework of the dome shaped roof which collapsed once the hut-pit was empty. The floor of the hut was approximately I metre below the ground and the top of the hut rose 0.8 to 1.0 metres.

These facts led Polykarpovitch to believe that these pit-huts must have been used for sleeping and somehow were kept warm: otherwise they would not have been sufficient protection against the cold. They showed no traces of typical fireplaces; one layer of coal and ash could be found and there was only a little space left around the remains of embers. It could be that the main fire was kept somewhere else and that the inhabitants collected the hot ash and bone 'coal' in rolled up animal skins and took them back to their huts and slept on them. This hypothesis is strengthened by the fact that no traces of stone nor large bones could be found inside the huts. Rogatchev also assumed that sick people could have been cured there. But an answer to this suggestion can only be given after further research has been carried out.
 

[ARES III]

Along the middle of the large settlement eleven fireplaces were found. two of them a little further away, towards the edge of it. Several irregular, bowl-shaped depressions and small holes were found inside the dwelling which might have been used as storage places. Beside some of the depressions large mammoth bones had been stuck vertically into the ground. According to Yefimenko they were used as working tables or anvils, and the pits which contained numerous implements could be thought of as the working places. Rogatchev also discovered well-preserved remains of hut constructions in Kostienki-Anosovskaya with several deep store pits, where large bones were used in their construction.


 

---

 

An alternative view of the layout of the Kostenki I house

Kostenki I (uppermost level). Distribution of chipped flint on the area excavated in 1931-1937.

Note the boundary for the dwelling

proposed by Grigor'ev, inside the one which was proposed by Efimenko (or Yefimenko). In support of this conjecture, Grigor'ev (1967) says:

It seems doubtful that Upper Palaeolithic peoples could have covered an expanse of 17 m. with a flat roof. Other Upper Palaeolithic dwellings (Pushkari, Aleksandrovka) were not wider than 4.5-5.5 m., and even long dwellings constructed by agriculturalists (Tripol'ye, Bandkeramik cultures, etc.) were 5-6 m., rarely 8 m., wide, although they were built with posts. Aleut houses of the 18th and 19th centuries, perhaps the only case of long houses used by a hunting people, were of approximately the same width.

The hypothesis that the Kostenki I dwelling was smaller than Efimenko's reconstruction of it is supported by detailed study of the distribution of cultural remains and comparison of this distribution with data from other Palaeolithic sites.

Mammoth ulna from K 1-V exhibiting cut marks (photo by JFH August 2008).

Assuming that a single mammoth is represented, it is more likely that the animal died at or near the location of the bones and teeth, and that portions of the carcass were subsequently exploited by humans and carnivores. The bones probably were exposed to sub-aerial weathering for several years. A similar pattern is evident at several sites in North America, where the partial carcass of one or two mammoths is found – with traces of tool damage on some of the bones – associated with a small quantity of artifacts. At these sites – as at K1-V – it is not always clear if the mammoth was hunted or simply scavenged by humans.

Photo and Text: Hoffeker et al. (2010)

 

Artefacts from K 1-V, including side-scraper (upper) and small bifacial points (lower).

The artefact assemblages at K 12-III and K 1-V chiefly comprise small bifaces (including triangular bifacial points), end-scrapers, side-scrapers, and small quantities of other tools forms. Non-stone implements are absent and the overall quantity of flaking debris is low. Local stone of poor-to-medium quality predominates, although some imported chert of good quality is present.

Photo and Text: Hoffeker et al. (2010)

 

---

 

Kostenki 2 - Kostenki II - Zamyatnina Site

Figure 16: Human skull from Gorodtsovskaya.
Figure 17: Human skull from Kostenki II.

Photo: Klein, "Man and Culture in the Late Pleistocene", 1969

At Kostenki II (Zamyatnina site) were found the remainders of a round dwelling made of mammoth bones, seven or eight metres across, with the fireplace in the centre. This dwelling was

[ARES III]

adjoining a grave of a Cro-Magnon man buried in the seated position.
 

Map showing the position of the bones of Kostienki II.

Menschenknochen: human bone
Tierknochen: animal bone
Backenzähne: (mammoth) molars
Stoßzähne: tusks
Herdstelle: hearth
Ausgrabungen: excavations: P.P. Yefimenko 1923
Störungen disturbances


Photo: Boriskovskij (1953) (?) in http://kups.ub.uni-koeln.de/2079/2/Abb_Kapitel_VI-VIII.pdf

 

---

 

Kostenki 4 - Kostenki IV - Aleksandrova Site

At Kostienki IV /Kostenki IV (Aleksandrovka site) there was preserved in the upper of two cultural layers, the remainders of two round dwellings

approximately six metres in diameter with the hearth at the centre of each.

Among the findings here were ground, drilled disks of slate. In the bottom layer there were two long dwellings, with a length of 34m and 23m, and a width of 5.5m, in which were found flint leaf-like tips processed by pressure retouching. In the second layer were found fragments of human bones, partially burnt, as well as flint miniature plates (microliths?) and needle shaped points (burins?).

From Cave Men's Buildings by V. Gordon Childe Antiquity (Journal) 24:7 (pp4 - 9)

Plan of Kostienki IV

There are two long buildings separated by only twenty metres, with a long line of hearths in each. It seems obvious that the same sort of culture built both dwellings, and possibly they existed at the same time.

The excavated areas are divided up into one-metre squares ; the irregular lines mark the limits of the two excavated ' houses ' ; the broken lines, low ridges dividing the excavated area into 'rooms', numbered I to VI; the black spots mark hearths.
(after Rogachev)
 

 

Kostenki IV (Aleksandrova).

Schematic plans of the settlements of both the upper and lower horizons (after Rogachev (1957) : Fig 41, in Grigor'ev (1967))
 

 

Another view of Kostienki IV from People of the Earth by Brian Fagan

Reconstruction of a house at Kostenki which does not use mammoth bones as a primary structural material.

Photo: From the book shown, by Vinnikov.

My thanks to Vladimir Gorodnjanski for access to this resource.

(It should be noted that at Kostenki 4 mammoth bones were apparently not used as structural materials for the huts, so a method like the one shown here, using wooden poles, must have been used. The question is, however, where did they get the wood for the structural supports? The area was mostly treeless for much of the time that the people of Kostenki used the banks of the River Don for their dwellings. No doubt they found them in gallery forests along the river and in ravines protected from the strong, dry, cold winds blowing dust from the glaciers to the north. which built up the loess plains millimetre by millimetre every year, and on which the grass which fed the vast herds of grazing animals grew, but good trees suitable for house supports must have been few and far between, nevertheless - Don)

The Kostienki 4 culture, also called the Alexandrov culture after the local name of the ravine where the site is located, represents another variety of the Gravettian:

* There is a unique type of long housing structure, (35 x 5.5 and 23 x 5.5 m), buried 20-30 cm below the paleosurface and with hearths located along the axis of buildings.

the lithic assemblage characterized (Fig. 9) by strikingly the importance of the blades and points on board killed (41%), parts of various shapes esquillées (17% or 1 200 pieces). * The lithic assemblage is characterised by the striking importance of backed blades and points (41%), parts of various types of splitting wedges (17%, or 1200 pieces). No other Gravettian assemblage has delivered these objects in such quantities.

The rarity of burins (2%) and scrapers (1%) appears to be another feature of this industry. Backed points and blades are marked by high variability.

[ARES III]

They are significantly different from the Telmanskaia (Kostienki  and Kostienki type, and much closer to the points of the classical Western Gravettian.

The bone industry and ornaments are rare and represented by only a few widely scattered examples.

According to AN Rogachev, the level II Kostienki 4 culture has no direct analogy with contemporary sites in Eastern Europe.



Photo and text: Sinitsyn (2007)

 

Animal head (possibly a cave lion head), and two bison figurines from Kostenki 4.

The site of Alexandrovka is known as Kostienki IV and was excavated in 1937 and 1938 by A N Rogatchev. He discovered two kinds of settlement which he later attributed to two different cultures. He uncovered two round huts in the upper layer which were overlapping on one side with huts of the lower layer, and which presented a number of fireplaces. A loess deposit, completely sterile, separated the two layers: this loess deposit was found opposite the two round huts of the upper layer. The lower deposits also showed outlines of round huts and contained large dwellings. Rogatchev felt that the two occupation layers must have intermingled at a later date, as there were different types of dwellings as well as differences in other objects. The upper layer contained several quartz, slate, and mammoth ivory flakes, and typical burins and bifacial stone tools which were all totally absent in the lower layer.

The outlines of the two round huts of the upper layer were only 100 to 400 millimetres deep, and each had a bowl-shaped fireplace in the centre of the floor. Many more implements were discovered inside the hut than outside. On the northern edge of the dwelling situated to the west the thinner cultural layer did not reach far beyond the hollowed-out space of each hut. This did not happen on the southern edge where the two round huts were connected by an

ochre-coloured substance. The area was sloping slightly at this particular point, and it can be assumed that the upper deposit had slipped down at a later date.

The hut on the western side was more interesting. It was 400 millimetres deep towards its northern edge but only 100 millimetres on its eastern side. There the floor of the hut was on a level with the ground outside. Six enormous tusks were found inside, the larger part of a humerus bone, a lower jaw, part of a shoulder blade, and parts of the spines and ribs of mammoths At the edge of this deposit twenty large sandstone stabs and pieces of sandstone were found. They lay at the very top of this deposit. and may be considered to be building material.

Particularly interesting was the discovery of a lion's skull, found in the upper levels of the layer. Rogatchev thought that the skull might have been kept on top of the roof as a kind of decoration or that it might have had some ritual significance. Yefimenko made an interesting discovery of the skull of an aurochs in dwelling 'A' at the site of Kostienki 1, which might be a parallel.

The fireplace which was in the centre of the settlement was surrounded by about twenty holes, about 200 millimetres deep. They were probably used to store or prepare food, because pots or

 

similar containers were unknown at this period. The tusks and bones of mammoths in the eastern dwelling were found at the bottom of the layer, not at the top. It can be assumed that they were not part of the construction (with the exception of the two tusks which were found in a somewhat higher level). The fireplace which was almost round, measured I metre in diameter, was approximately 100 millimetres deep, and slightly tilted in a westerly direction. It had a flat base and was bordered by a very small rim, only slightly protruding above the normal surface of the hut, Five medium-sized holes were found nearby, and from their position it would appear that they were of different periods. On the southern edge of the settlement a clay wall in good condition was found, it was 50 to 90 millimetres high and 400 to 500 millimetres wide. The clay was obviously deposited there when the living area was dug out and was then used either to stabilise the huts or to form a retaining border. The flat stones found at the western side must also have been used in the same way.

The lower layer of this site revealed two large, long dwellings. The one on the southern side was 33.5 metres by 5.5 metres and was distinguishable by the reddish colouring of its cultural layer. The other one was situated between 17 and 20 metres further north and measured 5.5 by 2.3 metres.

Modificato 10 Giugno, 2023 da ARES III

[ARES III]

(this length and width appear to be typographical errors) The first dwelling had more than ten (11 fireplaces are shown) centrally placed fireplaces in it and the plan shows that there must have been three different parts which are separated from one another by steps about 100 millimetres high. The first part, to the west, was 14 metres long, the centre part was 9 metres long, and the eastern section was 10.5 metres long, and also contained the richest finds. (28.6 metres by 6 metres according to the plan. This could easily be the description for 371 instead of 370) The dwelling was constructed along the slope obviously to protect its shortest side against the rain and water from melting snow. All fireplaces were built along the longitudinal axis of the dwelling, and it can be assumed that the structure must have had a roof which was highest in the middle.( no mention is made here of the add-on semicircular section) The roof was obviously anchored to the ground and cross-beams were connected to the ridge.

This is also substantiated by the way in which it was found. The middle of the dwelling produced more material probably because all activities were carried out there. On the north end of the western section was a kind of passage which was obviously the only entrance and faced the valley of the Don. Most of the stone and bone flakes were found around the

fireplaces which means that meals were prepared here, and tools made. All activities were obviously carried out inside the dwelling. Most of the bones found here belonged to hares; other animals are rarely found. On the north, and south-east side of the dwelling two smaller areas were found; they were not dug out, but were covered with flaked stones and bones. In the warm season people obviously used to sit outside and work.

The outlines of the second dwelling were clearly marked by the tool-finds. This dwelling, too, was divided into three parts and had altogether nine bowl-shaped fireplaces. There were two fireplaces in the western part, four in the central section, and three in the south-eastern part. ( 33.3 metres by 6 metres according to the plan. The division of the fireplaces identifies this as plan 371) Three cooking pits and twenty five smaller holes were found around the fireplaces - they were 200 to 400 millimetres across and of the same depth. There were no holes outside the dwelling. Three upright mammoth flakes of long-bones were found on the western part 600 millimetres away from the edge of the dwelling, and they obviously were used to strengthen the clay wall around it.
 

Kostenki 8

As a result of research in the thirties, interesting ancient structures began to be discovered.

In this photo from 1937, the excavation of the dwelling at the Kostenki 8 archeological site is visible.

In this photograph we can also clearly see the houses close by, and the locally sourced materials used for fencing and housing at that time.

Photo: Vladimir Gorodnjanski 2011
Source: Kostenki Museum

 

Map of the Kostenki 8 site.

The site was first excavated by AN Rogachev in 1936. 

The following year, PP Yefimenko and AN Rogachev continued research. In 1949 and 1950 a study was completed of the cultural layer of the upper dwellings and continued to study a large excavation layer II. A study of the monument continued in 1958-1959, 1962-1964, 1976 and 1979. In 2005-2007 the Kostenki Museum in collaboration with KBAE IHMC RAS (head of the expedition Anikovich M.V.) resumed work on the Telmanskoy archaeological site.

Fauna: many mammoth bones, wolf bones lying in front of a cave lion's skull, fox, rabbit, horse, reindeer, bison, hare, voles, rhino, marmots, beaver, birds.

Radiocarbon date: 27 700±750 BP

Photo: http://vantit.ru/antiquities/875-stojanka-8.html

 

By the 1980s, the method of investigation of the layers became more complicated. The study of one site could take up to six field seasons.

In this photo from 1986 A.A. Sinitsyn records the finds in the cultural layer of the dig.

[ARES III]

Old Gravettian, Kostienki 8 (Telmanskaia (II) )

* The lithic industry of the layer Kostienki 8 II is the only industry attributed to the Gravettian in the group using the time line of Kostienki (terminal Upper Paleolithic European old scheme). The ¹⁴C date of 27 700 ± 750 is considered the upper limit of the age sets of the group, associated with higher levels of organic matter in the soil (32 000 - 28 000 BP).

* It is the industry of the Telmanskaya II layer which allows us to describe a Gravettian of Mediterranean type which has strong similarities to that of the grotte Paglicci. This resemblance is now confirmed by the layer having a similar age (layer 23A: 28 100 ± 400 BP, layer 22F: 28 300 ± 400 BP).

 

* The occupancy level of the Telmanskaya II layer is characterised by the remains of five small settlement structures with a central hearth.

* The lithic assemblage comprises nearly 23 000 objects. The technology is characterised by maximum economy of material. Given the very small size of the cores found, it is likely they were used until the end. The technique is largely the knapping of blades. The use of burins seems particularly important here.

* More than 2000 retouched tools comprise 9% of the total number of worked objects. The cluster composition of the lithic industry is characterised by the preponderance of burins (24%) over scrapers (2.5%), by the strong dominance of backed bladelets and points over retouched blades (43%). * With points very common, there are a number of specific, varied forms. This typological variety of tips, in combination with a high degree of standardisation, reflects the changed nature of the industry or at least a relative importance of the microlithic component. Tools of the sparse group of scrapers, in contrast, are characterised by the lack of standardisation. The denticulate and notched scrapers and borers emphasise the particular composition of the industry.

* The bone industry includes ivory batons and bone awls and polishers. Ornamention is represented by long beads made of the bones of birds and small mammals, decorated with parallel incisions.

* The issue of cultural affiliation of the assembly of the layer II Kostienki 8 remains open due to the total absence in Eastern Europe of similar sites contemporary with the period 27 000 - 28 000 BP.

Photo and text: Sinitsyn (2007)

 

---

 

Kostenki 9

Two pieces of bone with deliberate notches cut in the edges.

Kostenki 9.

Excavations in 2006.

[ARES III]

Finely made stone tools.

Kostenki 9.

Excavations in 2006.

Photo: Vladimir Gorodnjanski 2011
Source: Originals, Kostenki Museum

 

---

 

Kostenki 11 - Kostenki XI

Kostenki XI contained not less than five cultural layers. In the upper layer the remains of a round dwelling 9 metres in diameter made from large mammoth bones were discovered. In the lower layers there were interesting findings of triangular flint tips, analogous to those found in the lower layer of Kostenki I.

 

Sites marked with red triangles are Upper Paleolithic sites.

Sites marked with black triangles are sites with specific types of structures with a large number of mammoth bones similar to Kostenki 11

Photo: Vladimir Gorodnjanski 2014
Source: Kostenki Museum

 

'Soil' profile for Kostenki 11

Source: Boguchar Museum

[ARES III]

[ARES III]

 

This photograph shows that the 'pavilion' that was in disrepair at Kostenki 11 is now very much restored, which is wonderful news. This is the original dig at Kostenki 11, kept so that visitors can get a feel for the look of an archaeological dig when a dwelling made of mammoth bones is unearthed.

Photo: Vladimir Gorodnjanski, 2006
 

 

It is also very good to see that the pavilion is being used for educational purposes. These students will come away with a better understanding of their culture and heritage.

 

The Museum is beautifully laid out to allow a full appreciation of the Kostenki 11 site.

Photo: Vladimir Gorodnjanski, 2014

 

 

It is a huge job to clean and sort through the many thousands of artefacts found in a large and diverse site such as this.

All the objects have to be identified and marked with their origin for future study. These are just a few of the blades from Kostenki 11.

Photo: Vladimir Gorodnjanski, 2014
 

 

Plan of the excavated dwellings of cultural layer 1 A, Kostenki 11.

900 pieces of flint were found just on the one metre square К-40 alone.

 

At Kostenki 11, the combination of simple small and circular houses with a diameter close to 6 metres, with an original stone industry and developed art, among which there are small animal figurines, are some of the criteria which make this assembly a particular variety of Gravettian.

The stone tools of this site show:

* a large number of truncated blades, sometimes oblique and concave, forming the tip of an awl with retouched lateral edges;

* a relatively low index of chisels (15%) and rare scrapers (less than 1%);

* tools on tanged blades;

* symmetrical points with a leaf-like profile plano-convex or bi-convex formed by a partial bifacial retouch;

* backed points and blades constituting nearly 50% of the tooling. The special character of this group is the existence of a series of objects similar to Federmesser (Federmesser means 'pen-knife' in German, and the term refers to the distinctive pointy projectile points of the culture. These points are found across lowland northwestern Europe, from France to eastern Germany ) or Azilian points, associated with various points of the Gravettian. The problem of distinguishing Federmesser and Gravettian points was debated in the 1970s. It is important, since this variety of backed points is one of the landmarks of the lithic industry, for Kostienki 11 (II), but also for the lithic assemblies of Kostienki 21 (III).

[ARES III]

Kostenki 11, 22 000 BP

Animal figurines, cultural layer II

(some of these are the originals of the first two rows of the drawing above - Don )

Photo: Vladimir Gorodnjanski, 2014
 

 

Kostenki 11, 22 000 BP

Animal figurines, cultural layer II

Photo: Vladimir Gorodnjanski, 2014

Geological stratigraphy of the Kostenki 11 site.

In order:

Modern soil
Stony loam
"Gmelinskaya" soil
Ancient humus stratum
Volcanic ash
Cultural layers

Photo: Vladimir Gorodnjanski, 2014
English text on photo: Don Hitchcock
 

 

 

 

 

Blades
Material: Cretaceous flint
Kostenki 11, layer II
(22 thousand years old)

Prismatic flint blades with thin edges were fine cutting tools. At the same time, they were useful blanks for making various other tools: scrapers, burins, awls, etc.

Photo: Vladimir Gorodnjanski, 2011
 

 

НАКОНЕЧНИКИ ДРОТИКОВ С ВОГНУТЫМ ОСНОВАНИЕМ

меловой, цветной кремень Костенки 11, V слой (28-32 тыс. лет)

Point with concave base

Cretaceous flint, Kostenki 11, layer V, (28 000 - 32 000 BP)

 

[ARES III]

Kostenki 12

Pokrovskij Ravine

Photo: Vladimir Gorodnjanski, 2014
 

 

View to the southeast down a side valley of Pokrovskii Ravine, looking across the mouth of the ravine and the village of Kostenki to the second terrace with Kostenki 12. The floodplain of the Don River is visible in the middle and left distance. Kostenki 1 is just out of view beyond the right side of the side ravine.

Photo and Text:
Geoarchaeology of the Kostenki– Borshchevo Sites, Don River Valley, Russia.

Vance T. Holliday et al.

Geoarchaeology: An International Journal, Vol. 22, No. 2, 181–228 (2007)

The International Conference of 2004 confirmed the interest in Kostenki.

Scientists from around the world came to these ancient monuments.

Here we see guests at the conference, with an excursion to the dig at Kostenki 12 conducted by A.E. Dudin.

Photo: Vladimir Gorodnjanski 2011
Source: Kostenki Museum

 

Stratigraphic profile of Kostenki 12 (east wall) showing the position of the humic beds, CI tephra horizon, Laschamps excursion, and Upper Paleolithic cultural layers, as well as OSL dates and calibrated radiocarbon dates on charcoal.

At Kostenki 12, sediment below the level of the ash horizon yielded optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dates of between 52,440 ± 3850 and 45 200 ± 3260 years. Paleomagnetic measurements show that this sediment contains the Laschamps excursion, which has been dated elsewhere to 45 000 to 39 000 years ago (21, 22).
 

 

View to the northeast from the uplands immediately west of (and above) Kostenki 12 looking across the mouth of Pokrovskii Ravine and the village of Kostenki illustrating the setting of Kostenki 1 at the

 

Stratigraphic profile of Kostenki 12 (east wall) showing the position of the humic beds, CI tephra horizon, Laschamps excursion, and Upper Paleolithic cultural layers, as well as OSL dates and calibrated radiocarbon dates on charcoal.

At Kostenki 12, sediment below the level of the ash horizon yielded optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dates of between 52,440 ± 3850 and 45 200 ± 3260 years. Paleomagnetic measurements show that this sediment contains the Laschamps excursion, which has been dated elsewhere to 45 000 to 39 000 years ago (21, 22).
 

 

View to the northeast from the uplands immediately west of (and above) Kostenki 12 looking across the mouth of Pokrovskii Ravine and the village of Kostenki illustrating the setting of Kostenki 1 at the

mouth (and to the left) of a side ravine (see Figure 3). Kostenki 1 is not on the second terrace proper, which is considerably higher in elevation. Note position of Kostenki 13 on the second terrace for comparison of elevations. The floodplain and channel of the Don River is visible in the upper-right distance.
 

[ARES III]

2015 excavation of Kostenki 14/IVw2 (top) and close up of articulated hare hindlimb bones (bottom).

Photo: A. Sinitsyn
Source: Dinnis et al. (2018)

 

Depositional context of EUP large mammal remains: Lower Humic Bed surface exposed in Cultural Layer III at Kostenki 12 (K 12-III), showing large mammal bone fragments in situ.

Kostenki 14 - Kostenki XIV - Markina Gora)

Kostenki XIV (Markina Mountain, Markina Gora), contained four cultural layers. In the third was found the ochred burial of a man with some negroid features.
 

Figure 14: Human skull from Kostenki XVIII
Figure 15: Human skull from Markina Gora, Horizon 3.

Photo: Klein, "Man and Culture in the Late Pleistocene", 1969

 

Skeleton from Kostenki 14

Photo: The Stone Age in Ostrogozhsk arra

[ARES III]

Skeleton from Kostenki 14

Photo: Vladimir Gorodnjanski
Source: Facsimile, display, Kostenki Museum

 

(Left) Necklace made of Neritidae, snail shells. Kostenki 14, 33 - 35 thousand years old.

(Right) Necklace made of Arctic fox bones. Kostenki 14, 33 - 35 thousand years old.

вулканический пепел

The necklaces were found in volcanic ash, 33 - 35 thousand years old.

View of the south side of the middle of Pokrovskii Ravine in the area of Kostenki 14 (arrow).

Photo: Geoarchaeology of the Kostenki– Borshchevo Sites, Don River Valley, Russia.
Vance T. Holliday et al.
Geoarchaeology: An International Journal, Vol. 22, No. 2, 181–228 (2007)

My thanks to Dr Vance Holliday, Professor of Anthropology & Geosciences, University of Arizona, for access to this resource.
 

 

Map of the Kostenki 14 site. Fauna include bison, mammoth, horse, rabbit, deer, rhinoceros, reindeer, mammoths, wolves, steppe lemming, steppe pika, voles, cave lion.