Middle Paleolithic Industries of the Early Late Pleistocene (OIS 5) in the Southwestern Part of Eastern Europe

Middle Paleolithic Industries of the Early Late Pleistocene (OIS 5) in the Southwestern Part of Eastern Europe

N.K. Anisyutkin.

The article focuses on the coexistence of Middle Paleolithic industries in the southwestern part of Eastern Europe in the beginning of the last glaciation (OIS 5). Three assemblages from sites situated on the Middle Dniester, Chernigov Oblast, the Ukraine, and associated with alluvial deposits of the fl oodplain part of the second terrace are compared – Ketrosy, Shipot-2, and Osypka. Geological data unambiguously suggest that these deposits date back to the earliest Würm (OIS 5c and 5d) and are earlier than 100 ka BP. The stone industries represent two distinct variants of the Middle Paleolithic, which disagrees with the Ukrainian archaeologists’ belief that the regional Middle Paleolithic was uniform.

Keywords: Late Pleistocene, Middle Paleolithic layers, southwestern part of Eastern Europe, Dniester valley, fl oodplain
alluvium.