Archaeologia Baltica

The article deals with the structural-genetic and cultural-genetic aspects of table evolution. Varieties, design features as a separate element, as well as element of the interior of the dwelling (stationary benches, mobile benches, small benches) have been analysed. The table in the Polissya dwelling performed originally a sacred-symbolic function as it was investigated in field material and written sources. Table played a role of a kind of a home altar. As a place for everyday eating table began to be used quite late. Table predecessors were stationary benches, mobile benches and small benches.

The Final Palaeolithic in the Lithuanian coastal zone has so far been represented only by a few

Extensive excavations of Stone Age sites in Western Pomerania have been conducted since 1981. Three of them, the Rotnowo site 18, Tanowo site 3 and Bolków site 1, were selected as Tanged Point Younger Dryas key sites. These open sandy sites revealed well-preserved flint concentrations and a dwelling structure (Tanowo). Their flint inventories, with elements of Ahrensburgian culture, are made up of local flints. Younger Dryas chronology is supported by geology and C14 from Rotnowo: 10820±80 BP [Poz-8309] (cal. 11180–10830 BC). The results of the investigations were compared with settlements from other regions of Poland and with sites from Lithuania and Latvia.

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.

Local and exotic flint use and distribution are considered as markers of group mobility. The Arch Backed Pieces and the Mazovian societies organised logistics expeditions in various directions, south-north, west-east, using natural routes as river valleys, but also crossing mountains. Their motives seem to be different and not only connected with economic necessity and subsistence strategy. Group mobility, observed rarely on distances more than tens of hundreds of kilometres, was probably a seasonal event, but sometimes may be a reflection of a permanent exodus.