Research History of the Amvrosiivka Upper Palaeolithic Complex

  • Oleksandra A. Krotova Institute of Archaeology, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine
  • Iryna A. Snizhko Ukrainian State University of Railway Transport http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7797-9494
Keywords: Ukraine, Eastern Europe, Upper Palaeolithic, epigravettian, hunters on bisons.

Abstract

The Amvrosiivka Upper Palaeolithic complex, which consists of a site and bison bone bed, is situated in the South-East of Ukraine near Amvrosiivka city, in the upper reaches of the Kazenna ravine. In the beginning it was found by the geologists in the 1910 as assemblage of bison bones, which was later determined in the detailed geologic map of the region as paleontological seat of natural origin (Meffert 1923). Thanks to archaeological exploration and excavations, which were held in 1935 by V. M. Evseev — the scholar of the Stalin Regional Museum of Local History, this location has come to notice as Upper Palaeolithic archaeological site.

In 1940—1950-ies the site and the bone bed were studied by the collaborative expedition of IA AS USSR and IHMC AS USSA, led by paleontologist I. H. Pidoplichko and archaeologist P. I. Boryskovskyi. Character and main area of cultural stratum were defined; significant collection of flint and bone artifacts were collected; interpretations of the bone bed as a place of battue and/or place of cult of bison hunters were proposed.

In 1980—2000-s the site research were continued by NASU Institute of Archaeology lead by O. O. Krotova with the participation of the range of native and foreign specialists of allied sciences: M. F. Veklych, Zh. M. Matviishyna, N. P. Herasymenko, Iu. M. Hrybchenko, O. I. Kurenkova, N. G. Belan, V. M. Lohvynenko, A. V. Starkin, L. Todd (USA) and M.-A. Julien (France). In 1989 a field workshop was held on the site according to the program of the Soviet-American “Upper Palaeolithic—Paleo-Indian Adaptations” symposium, in which famous scholars from the USA took part (O. Soffer, L. Binford, D. Frizon, C. Haynes, B. Bradley, D. Dincauze, J. Adovasio, L. Davis, D. Meltzer) as well as scholars from Great Britain (C. Gamble), Ukraine and Russia. As a result of the site research, the area of the bone bed and site cultural layers was refined, new finds, including distinctive ones, were revealed, site interpretation was enlarged to be a compound bison hunters complex on a place of holding repeated hunting operations and of dwelling near it, on the site, where composite domestic and household processes took place.

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2019-09-01
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