Nikolaevo-Otradnoye II—A New Early and Middle Paleolithic Site in the Northeastern Azov Region
Nikolaevo-Otradnoye II— A New Early and Middle Paleolithic Site in the Northeastern Azov Region
doi:10.17746/1563-0110.2023.51.3.025-031
A.V. Kolesnik1, Y.N. Zorov2, A.Y. Danilchenko3, V.V. Titov4, E.A. Konstantinov5, P.D. Frolov6, and N.V. Sychev5 1Donetsk State University, Universitetskaya 24, Donetsk, 283001, Russia 2State Autonomous Institution of Culture of the Rostov Region “Donskoe Nasledie”, Nizhnebulvarnaya 29, Rostov-on-Don, 344022, Russia 3Kamensk Museum of Decorative, Applied and Folk Art, Pr. Karla Marksa 56, Kamensk-Shakhtinsky, 347800, Russia 4Southern Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Pr. Chekhova 41, Rostov-on-Don, 344006, Russia 5Institute of Geography, Russian Academy of Sciences, Staromonetnyi per. 29, bldg. 4, Moscow, 119017, Russia 6Geological Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, Pyzhevsky per. 7, bldg. 1, Moscow, 119017, Russia
We describe materials from a new Paleolithic site, discovered in 2020 on the right bank of Mius estuary, near its confluence with the Taganrog Bay of the Sea of Azov, in the southern outskirts of the village of Nikolaevo-Otradnoye, which is in the Neklinovksky District of the Rostov Region. The clearing of a 10-meter-high river-bluff revealed a complex stratigraphy of subaqueous and subaerial Late and Middle Pleistocene rocks. Horizons with lithics and faunal remains were identified. Cultural remains found in the coastal exposure and in the stratigraphic section belong to the Early and Middle Paleolithic. The early stage in the peopling of the Northeastern Azov and the Lower Don regions is documented by Early Paleolithic artifacts found in the subaqueous deposits of layers 5 and 6 (MIS 9-11, ~420-270 ka BP). Heavily waterworn patinated lithics include a core-shaped artifact, various types of side-scrapers, a scaled piece, flakes, and chips. This complex is an informative addition to known complexes from the region, including contemporaneous ones. The most interesting is the Middle Paleolithic industry of layer 4 under the Kamenka (?) soil— layer 3, MIS 7. The toolkit consists of a diagonal side-scraper and a chip found in the section, as well as radial and Levallois cores, various side-scrapers, a partly bifacial tool, spalls, and chips found in the denudation. Technological and typological criteria (primarily the Levallois technology) and the tentative date of non-waterworn patinated lithics make it possible to attribute them to the Early Middle Paleolithic of the southern Russian Plain. It is concluded that cultural remains of the Early Middle Paleolithic, dating to ~243-191 ka BP, have been found in the region for the first time, filling the gap in the local Early Middle Paleolithic sequence. In adjacent regions, similar industries have been known since the late 1900s.
Keywords: Northeastern Azov region, Early and Middle Paleolithic, Mius estuary, early peopling of Eastern Europe, Middle Paleolithic humans, stone tools
