Archaeologia Baltica

The analysis of palynological, radiocarbon and geological methods dating of archaeological sites of the end of the Pleistocene and the beginning of the Holocene in Central Russia and the revision of available and not numerous dates shows that for mineral grounds these methods require serious correction, and the dates themselves do not correspond in most cases to the typological age of the archaeological materials.

Transversal arrowheads (trapezia) are a characteristic type of hunting implement of some Final Palaeolithic-Early Mesolithic cultures of Eastern Europe. These cultures were studied in the Volga-Oka basin (Ienevo Culture), the Middle Dnieper-Desna basin (Pisochny Riv Culture), the Lower Dnieper-Donets region (Zimivnyki Culture) and the Volga-Kama confluence (Oust-Kamskaya Culture). Issues of origin and fate still remain debatable. An interest in the formation and interaction of Volga-Dnieper cultures with transversal arrowheads in their inventory is induced by their specific geographical position as well as a permanent increase in data. Discussions of the genesis of these trapezium complexes has tended to focus on two variants: 1) within Post-Ahrensburgian industries due to some factors (natural or social); 2) from west Asian-Caucasian cultures with geometric tools. Probably the first variant is most likely to be attributed to Ienevo and Pisochny Riv, and the second is preferable for Zimivnyki and Oust-Kamskaya. Cultures in the Dnieper-Donets and Middle Volga basins, on the basis of the great variety of trapezia, are assumed to represent an area of crossing of cultural tradition. The forms of this crossing need to be concretised in the course of further research.

The site of Rostislavl is located on the right high bank of the Oka river near the town of Ozyory (Moscow region). Tanged points from the Rostislavl site are similar to the ones spread in the Alleröd-Dryas III period on the sites of northern Germany, Poland, the Upper Volga (Podol III and Ust-Tudovka I), and in the Upper Dnieper (Anosovo I) regions etc. This fact allows us to assume, at this stage of research, the Final Palaeolithic age of the Rostislavl site as the most probable.

In the light of the present findings from Pagóry Chełmskie the flint deposited on the surface occurs in two types. One type often resembles the shaft varieties from Volhynia, Podolia and Volhynian Polesie, or even Podlasie. Most Final Palaeolithic finds represent the settlements of cultures with point-tools tradition, mostly Swiderian Culture, some of them are connected with an undetermined culture with backed points, one site with the inventories of Magdalenian Culture.

The East Baltic Stone Age is well known for its rich array of bone and antler artefacts. The collections consist of stray finds as well as inventory from stratified settlement sites. Seven hunting and fishing tool complexes, made from bone and antler, were singled out in Latvia, characterising each stage of the Baltic Stone Age. The oldest of these complexes was formed at the very end of the Late Glacial period when the ice sheet retreated and the conditions for human habitation were created. This complex consists of 18 bone and antler artefacts, harpoons of archaic forms and spearheads, found in Latvia and Lithuania. Unfortunately, they are all stray finds and determined as Late Palaeolithic only typologically. Harpoons in similar morphological forms are known from all of northwest and Central Europe, associated with Late Palaeolithic reindeer hunter cultures. Some of the finds were made from reindeer antler. The new carbon 14 data of reindeer bones, obtained in Helsinki University by H. Jungner, testified to the presence of reindeer in the Eastern Baltic from Alleröd times till the beginning of the Preboreal climatic period.

The cult of the deer was widespread in traditional societies of deer hunters. This cult was connected with the worship of the deer or man-deer, the ancestor of people and deer, and a cultural hero, the teacher of deer hunting. The most important evidence supporting a deer cult in traditional societies are the totemistic mysteries connected with the reproduction of the deer, and magic hunting rituals. The most important participant in these rituals is the shaman.

A detailed description of the Late Glacial environment was attempted through an interpretation of pollen data and lithological records in the sequences with 14C chronologies. Pollen data suggests that during the pre-Alleröd time (>11.914C kyr. BP) tree-less vegetation flourished in the area where sedimentation in freshwater bodies with a high water level was dominant. The formation of Betula and Pinus predominating forest (11.9−11.814C kyr. BP) coincides with the increasing representation of the organic constituent in investigated sequences. Palaeobotanical records show some improvement of the climatic conditions since the middle of the Younger Dryas cold event (10.5−10.414C kyr. BP). Sedimentation in oligo-mesotrophic nutrient-rich lakes with a rather high water level was typical for the end of the Late Glacial.

According the excavation data in the lake basin Neumark-Nord 2 it was possible to record three different archaeological find horizons in the superposition. The older find horizon contains numerous smashed bones and flint artefacts, characterised by the Levallois technology of the developed Middle Palaeolithic and is dated, so far, to “Intrasaalian” Interglacial. The second find horizon (NN 2/1) is situated above the NN 2/2 and is characterised by the slight dispersal of bone fragments and flint artefacts. It probably belongs to the beginning of the Eemian Interglacial. The youngest find horizon (NN 2/0) lies over the Eemian optimum and belongs to an Interstadial within the Weichselian Glacial.