Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gbm5v Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T00:07:56.288Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The chronology and function of a new circular mammoth-bone structure at Kostenki 11

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 March 2020

Alexander J.E. Pryor Open the ORCID record for Alexander J.E. Pryor [Opens in a new window] ,
David G. Beresford-Jones ,
Alexander E. Dudin ,
Ekaterina M. Ikonnikova ,
John F. Hoffecker  and
Clive Gamble
Alexander J.E. Pryor*
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology, University of Exeter, UK
David G. Beresford-Jones
Affiliation:
McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge, UK
Alexander E. Dudin
Affiliation:
Kostenki Museum-Preserve, Voronezh, Russia
Ekaterina M. Ikonnikova
Affiliation:
Independent researcher
John F. Hoffecker
Affiliation:
Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research, University of Colorado at Boulder, USA
Clive Gamble
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology, University of Southampton, UK
*
*Author for correspondence ✉ [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Circular features made from mammoth bone are known from across Upper Palaeolithic Eastern Europe, and are widely identified as dwellings. The first systematic flotation programme of samples from a recently discovered feature at Kostenki 11 in Russia has yielded assemblages of charcoal, burnt bone and microlithic debitage. New radiocarbon dates provide the first coherent chronology for the site, revealing it to be one of the oldest such features on the Russian Plain. The authors discuss the implications for understanding the function of circular mammoth-bone features during the onset of the Last Glacial Maximum.

Keywords

Russian PlainKostenkiPalaeolithicmammoth bonedwellingflotationdebitage
Type
Research Article
Information
Antiquity , Volume 94 , Issue 374 , April 2020 , pp. 323 - 341
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd, 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Allsworth-Jones, P. 1998. Introduction. Mammoth bone dwellings in Eastern Europe: a reassessment, in Pidoplichko, I.H. (ed.) Upper Palaeolithic dwellings of mammoth bones in the Ukraine: Kiev-Kirillovskii, Gontsy, Dobranichevka, Mezin and Mezhirich: i–xxxvi. Oxford: Archaeopress.Google Scholar
Beresford-Jones, D., Johnson, K., Pullen, A., Pryor, A., Svoboda, J. & Jones, M.. 2010. Burning wood or burning bone? A reconsideration of flotation evidence from Upper Palaeolithic (Gravettian) sites in the Moravian Corridor. Journal of Archaeological Science 37: 2799–811. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2010.06.014CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beresford-Jones, D., Taylor, S., Paine, C., Pryor, A., Svoboda, J. & Jones, M.. 2011. Rapid climate change in the Upper Palaeolithic: the record of charcoal conifer rings from the Gravettian site of Dolní Vĕstonice, Czech Republic. Quaternary Science Reviews 30: 1948–64. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2011.04.021CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bessudnov, A.A. 2016. The problem of the presence of the late Upper Palaeolithic geological and cultural deposits at Kostenki, in Panin, A.V., Timireva, S.N., Kurenkova, E.I. & Kononov, Y.M. (ed.) Routes of evolutionary geography: proceedings of the Scientific Conference in Memory of Prof. A.A. Velichko: 626–31. Moscow: Institute of Geography, Russian Academy of Sciences (in Russian).Google Scholar
Bosch, M.D., Nigst, P.R., Fladerer, F.A. & Antl-Weiser, W.. 2012. Humans, bones and fire: zooarchaeological, taphonomic and spatial analyses of a Gravettian mammoth bone accumulation at Grub-Kranawetberg (Austria). Quaternary International 252: 109–21. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2011.08.019CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bronk Ramsey, C. 2009. Bayesian analysis of radiocarbon dates. Radiocarbon 51: 337–60. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033822200033865CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clark, J.E. 1986. Another look at small debitage and microdebitage. Lithic Technology 15: 21–33. https://doi.org/10.1080/01977261.1986.11720863CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dudin, A.E. & Fedyunin, I.V.. In press. Kostenki 11 (Anosovka 2): the third bone-earthen complex of the cultural layer Ia, in Platonova, N.I. & Lisitsyn, S.N. (ed.) Man and mammoth in Palaeolithic Europe: in memory of Mikhail Vasilyevich: 221–36. St Petersburg: Branco (in Russian).Google Scholar
Fedyunin, I.V. 2016. O raskopkakh mnogosloynoy paleoliticheskoy stoyanki Kostonki 11 (Anosovka 2) v Khokhol'skom rayone Voronezhskoy oblasti v 2015 g. Voronezh: LLC ‘TERRA’ (in Russian).Google Scholar
Gavrilov, K.H. 2015. ‘Dwellings’ of the Anosovo-Mezin type: origins and interpretation. Stratum Plus: Archaeology and Cultural Anthropology 1: 187–204 (in Russian).Google Scholar
Hather, J.G. 1993. An archaeobotanical guide to root and tuber identification. Volume 1: Europe and South-west Asia. Oxford: Oxbow.Google Scholar
Iakovleva, L. 2015. The architecture of mammoth bone circular dwellings of the Upper Palaeolithic settlements in Central and Eastern Europe and their socio-symbolic meanings. Quaternary International 359–360: 324–34. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2014.08.050CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Iakovleva, L. & Djindjian, F.. 2005. New data on mammoth bone settlements of Eastern Europe in the light of the new excavations of the Gontsy site (Ukraine). Quaternary International 126–28: 195–207. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2004.04.023CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marquer, L., Lebreton, V., Otto, T., Valladas, H., Haesaerts, P., Messager, E., Nuzhnyi, D. & Péan, S.. 2012. Charcoal scarcity in Epigravettian settlements with mammoth bone dwellings: the taphonomic evidence from Mezhyrich (Ukraine). Journal of Archaeological Science 39: 109–20. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2011.09.008CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nadel, D. 2001. Indoor/outdoor flint knapping and minute debitage remains: the evidence from the Ohalo II submerged camp (19.5 ky, Jordan Valley). Lithic Technology 26: 118–37. https://doi.org/10.1080/01977261.2001.11720982CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Newcomer, M.H. & Karlin, C.. 1987. Flint chips from Pincevent, in Sieveking, G.D.G. & Newcomer, M.H. (ed.) The human uses of flint and chert: 33–36. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Pidoplichko, I.H. 1998. Upper Palaeolithic dwellings of mammoth bones in the Ukraine: Kiev-Kirillovskii, Gontsy, Dobranichevka, Mezin and Mezhirich. Oxford: Archaeopress.10.30861/9780860549499CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Popov, V.V., Anikovich, M.V., Hoffecker, J.F., Dudin, A.E., Pustovalov, A.Y. & Chernyshev, S.. 2004. Kostenki 11 (Anosovka 2), in Anikovich, M.V. & Platonova, N.I. (ed.) Kostenki & the early Upper Palaeolithic of Eurasia: general trends, local developments: 6–17. Voronezh: Institute for the Material Culture History, Russian Academy of Sciences (in Russian).Google Scholar
Pryor, A.J.E., Steele, M., Jones, M.K., Svoboda, J. & Beresford-Jones, D.G.. 2013. Plant foods in the Upper Palaeolithic at Dolní Vĕstonice? Parenchyma redux. Antiquity 87: 971–84. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003598X00049802CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pryor, A.J.E., Pullen, A., Beresford-Jones, D.G., Svoboda, J.A. & Gamble, C.S.. 2016. Reflections on Gravettian firewood procurement near the Pavlov Hills, Czech Republic. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 43: 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaa.2016.05.003CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reimer, P.J. et al. 2013. IntCal13 and Marine13 radiocarbon age calibration curves 0–50 000 years cal BP. Radiocarbon 55: 1869–87. https://doi.org/10.2458/azu_js_rc.55.16947CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reynolds, N., Lisitsyn, S.N., Sablin, M.V., Barton, N. & Higham, T.F.G.. 2015. Chronology of the European Russian Gravettian: new radiocarbon dating results and interpretation. Quartär 62: 121–32.Google Scholar
Rogachev, A.N. & Popov, V.V.. 1982. Kostenki 11 (Anosovka 2), in Praslov, N.D. & Rogachev, A.N. (ed.) Paleolit Kostenkovsko-Borshchevskogo Raiona na Donu 1879–1979: 116–32. Leningrad: Nauka (in Russian).Google Scholar
Sinitsyn, A. 2015. Perspectives on the Palaeolithic of Eurasia: Kostenki and related sites, in Sanz, N. (ed.) Human origin sites and the World Heritage Convention in Eurasia (HEADS 4), volume I: 163–89. Paris & Mexico City: United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization.Google Scholar
Soffer, O. 1985. The Upper Paleolithic of the Central Russian Plain. London: Academic. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-654270-7.50010-0CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Soffer, O. 2003. Mammoth bone accumulations: death sites? Kill sites? Dwellings?, in Vasil'ev, S.A., Soffer, O. & Kozlowski, J. (ed.) Perceived landscapes and built environments: the cultural geography of Last Paleolithic Eurasia: 39–46. Oxford: Archaeopress.Google Scholar
Soffer, O., Adovasio, J., Kornietz, N., Velichko, A., Gribchenko, Y., Lenz, B. & Suntsov, V.. 1997. Cultural stratigraphy at Mezhirich, an Upper Palaeolithic site in Ukraine with multiple occupations. Antiquity 71: 48–62. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003598X00084532CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stiner, M.C., Kuhn, S.L., Weiner, S. & Bar-Yosef, O.. 1995. Differential burning, recrystallization and fragmentation of archaeological bone. Journal of Archaeological Science 22: 223–37. https://doi.org/10.1006/jasc.1995.0024CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Théry-Parisot, I. 2002. Fuel management (bone and wood) during the Lower Aurignacian in the Pataud rock shelter (Lower Palaeolithic, Les Eyzies de Tayac, Dordogne, France): contribution of experimentation. Journal of Archaeological Science 29: 1415–21. https://doi.org/10.1006/jasc.2001.0781CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tzedakis, P.C., Emerson, B.C. & Hewitt, G.M.. 2013. Cryptic or mystic? Glacial tree refugia in Northern Europe. Trends in Ecology & Evolution 28: 696–704. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2013.09.001CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Supplementary material: PDF

Pryor et al. supplementary material

Pryor et al. supplementary material

Download Pryor et al. supplementary material(PDF)
PDF 1.1 MB