Prehistoric Ukraine

From the First Hunters to the First Farmers

Chelsea E. Budd, Malcolm C. Lillie, Inna D. Potekhina, Malcolm C. Lillie, Inna D. Potekhina

• Publisher: Oxbow Books
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781789254594
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Archaeology
• Index: Social Sciences

This volume covers the Prehistory of Ukraine from the Lower Palaeolithic through to the end of the Neolithic periods. This is the first comprehensive synthesis of Ukrainian Prehistory from earliest times through until the Neolithic Period undertaken by researchers who are currently investigating the Prehistory of Ukraine. At present there are no other English language books on this subject that provide a current synthesis for these periods. The chapters in this volume provide up-to-date overviews of all aspects of prehistoric culture development in Ukraine and present details of the key sites and finds for the periods studied. The book includes the most recent research from all areas of prehistory up to the Neolithic period, and, in addition, areas such as recent radiocarbon dating and its implications for culture chronology are considered; as is a consideration of aDNA and the new insights into culture history this area of research affords; alongside recent macrofossil studies of plant use, and anthropological and stable isotope studies of diet, which all combine to allow greater insights into the nature of human subsistence and cultural developments across the Palaeolithic to Neolithic periods in Ukraine. It is anticipated that this book will be an invaluable resource for students of prehistory throughout Europe in providing an English-language text that is written by researchers who are active in their respective fields and who possess an intimate knowledge of Ukrainian prehistory.

1

Studying the Lower and Middle Palaeolithic of Ukraine: main trends, discussions and results

Vadim Stepanchuk

This chapter considers the history of research into the Palaeolithic period in Ukraine (within the borders as of 1991) and the associated cultural processes that are in evidence during this period. The focus of this chapter is the Lower and Middle Palaeolithic periods where we move from occasional and temporary forays into the territory of Ukraine by early hominids, through to more visible occupations of longer duration in the Middle Palaeolithic period. However, while the frequency of sites increases over time, securely dated sites with reliable in situ evidence for human activity remain scarce until the later part of the Middle, and into the Upper, Palaeolithic period in Ukraine. Despite the fact that Palaeolithic studies in Ukraine have been undertaken for over 150 years, beginning with investigations at the site of Gontsy in the Poltava region, the recent discovery of a new dwelling constructed from mammoth bones at this location demonstrates the continued potential of Palaeolithic studies. This new discovery highlights the fact that both new research and new investigations at established locations continues to expand our knowledge of this period. Comprehensive studies of the lithic assemblages from previous investigations are also adding to our knowledge and understanding of the Lower and Middle Palaeolithic periods.

The chapter consists of several thematic sub-sections focusing on the historiography, periodisation and geochronological framework of the early Stone Age period, the availability of key resources, settlement issues, general characteristics of the available Lower and Middle Palaeolithic records, reconstructions of the probable economy and social organization of the final middle Palaeolithic period, and finally some significant issues relating to the Middle to Upper Palaeolithic transition in Ukraine.

An overview of the historiography of the study of the Lower and Middle Palaeolithic in Ukraine

Field discoveries and excavations

The history of research into the Palaeolithic period in Ukraine dates back to 1873, with the discovery, by F.I. Kaminski, of an Upper Palaeolithic site near Gontsy in the Poltava region. A few years later, in 1879–1880, K.S. Merezhkovskiy discovered traces of earlier, Middle Palaeolithic, sites in Crimea (e.g. the Beshtyretsky Grotto and the cave complex at Kabazi; Merezhkovskiy 1881; 1884; 1887). However, the systematic study of ancient sites began much later, in the second decade of the 20th century. Despite this late beginning, by the mid-1920s, thanks to the works of G.A. Bonch-Osmolovskiy (1930: 1934: Bonch-Osmolovskiy and Gromov 1936), N.L. Ernst (1934), S.N. Bibikov, S.N. Zabnin (1928) and P.P. Efimenko (1927; 1935), the presence of Palaeolithic populations in the territory of Ukraine, in the mid–late Pleistocene (related to the Mousterian archaeological culture complex) was securely established. The most important and influential work was the study undertaken by G.A. Bonch-Osmolovskiy, who discovered a number of Middle Palaeolithic sites in Crimea. Notable among these is the site of Kiik-Koba, in which the first Eastern European remains of Neanderthals were discovered in 1924 (Bonch-Osmolovskiy 1926; 1934; 1940). In the early post-war years sites of Lower Palaeolithic age were discovered (Boriskovskiy 1949) and credible evidence for the building of shelters by Neanderthals was established (Chernysh 1960; 1965).

During an intensive period of research, from the 1960s to the 1990s, up to the time of the collapse of the Soviet Union (1991), the corpus of data on the Lower and the Middle Palaeolithic of Ukraine increased immeasurably due to the work of numerous researchers,1 and this subject’s bibliography now consists of about a hundred books and several thousand articles and reports. In the period from the 1990s to the beginning of the second decade of the 21st century intensive archaeological research was still carried out in regions such as Crimea (Kolosov et al. 1993; Chabai 2004; Chabai and Monigal 1999; Chabai et al. 2006, etc) and Volhynia-Podolia (Boguckyj and Sytnyk 1998; Sytnyk 2000; 2003; Piasetskiy 2009). Smaller regional field studies were also being conducted in the Southern Bug river basin (Stepanchuk et al. 2009; Zaliznyak et al. 2013), in the Carpathian and Trans-Carpathian regions (Matskevyi 2002; Koulakovska 2003; Ryzhov 2003; Ryzhov et al. 2009), and in northern Ukraine (Kukharchuk 2002; 2014). By the mid-2010s, no more than half a dozen experts, primarily based in Kiev, were engaged in archaeological work related to the Lower and Middle Palaeolithic periods in Ukraine; with fieldwork being undertaken in central Ukraine (Zaliznyak et al. 2013; 2015, Nezdolii 2017; Shevchenko 2019) and the Dniester and Transcarpathian region (Kulakovska et al. 2018; Gerasimenko et al. 2019). Field studies of Lower Palaeolithic sites are now mainly being conducted in the Southern Bug and Severskiy Donets areas and Transcarpathia (Stepanchuk 2014; Yamada and Ryzhov 2015).

Today, there are more than 350 known sites and locations in Ukraine that have produced a significant quantity of lithic material, along with major paleontological collections and fossil remains of prehistoric humans (Bonch-Osmolovskiy 1940; Boriskovskiy 1953; Formozov 1958; Chernysh 1965; Kolosov 1972; 1983; 1986; Smirnov 1973; Gladilin 1976; 1989; Goretskiy and Tseytlin 1977; Anisyutkin 1981; 2001; 2005; 2013; Goretskiy and Ivanova 1982; Praslov 1984a; Ivanova and Tseytlin 1987; Kulakovskaya 1989; Gladilin and Sitliviy 1990; Kolosov et al. 1993; Kukharchuk 1993; Boguckyj and Sytnyk 1998; Marks and Chabai 1998a; 1998b; Chabai and Monigal 1999; Sytnyk 2000; 2003; Stepanchuk 2002a; 2002b; 2006; Kolesnik 2003; Chabai 2004; Chabai et al. 2004; Demidenko 2004; Chabai and Uthmeier 2006; Demidenko and Uthmeier 2013; Stepanchuk et al. 2013; Stepanchuk and Vasiliev 2018, etc). Many of these sites have been comprehensively studied using methods from the natural sciences (e.g. for the Dniester area see Goretskiy and Tseytlin 1977; Praslov 1981a; Goretskiy and Ivanova 1982; Ivanova and Tseytlin 1987; Boguckyj and Sytnyk 1998; Madeyska 2002; Łanchont et al. 2014). A large amount of data relating to the absolute chronology of the sites has also been obtained (e.g. Marks and Chabai 1998a; 1998b; Chabai and Monigal 1999; Sytnyk 2000; Madeyska 2002; Stepanchuk et al. 2004). These studies allow us to reconstruct specific details of the contemporary natural environment (e.g. Stepanchuk et al. 2013). A huge archaeological source base has served as the foundation for the development of methods of artefact classification, as well as the basis for approaches to the subsequent reconstruction of past socio-cultural processes on the territory of modern Ukraine.

Key questions in the study of the Lower and Middle Palaeolithic in Ukraine

Some of the most significant problems encountered when studying earlier prehistory are questions related to the periodisation and chronology of sites, the classification and typology of related finds, variability in lithic assemblages and the migration routes for the initial stages of settlement in Ukraine. Additional areas of study include possible social and demographic reconstructions and population and culture change at the transition to the Upper Palaeolithic. Where practicable the following discussion will endeavour to address these issues using the available evidence from the territory of Ukraine.

Closely linked to the above questions are additional considerations related to the precise chronology and specific context (i.e. climate, environment etc) that existed at the time of the initial colonisation and subsequent settlement, of human groups (Dincauze 2000: 65). Following from these considerations are the need to elucidate the nature of human–environment interactions and the reconstruction of the social and demographic characteristics of Middle Palaeolithic society; as it is unlikely that we will be able to undertake this level of analysis for the Lower Palaeolithic period given the fragmentary nature of the record and the methodologies that are currently available to us. Furthermore, the timing and specific character of the transition from the Middle to the Upper Palaeolithic periods requires greater resolution.

Approaches to classification and typology

The development of Palaeolithic typological classification systems that describe stone artefact collections is a fundamental aspect of Palaeolithic research in Ukraine. International expertise (Bordes 1961; 1984) has been widely applied in this area of research (Lioubine 1965) and it has been adopted as a baseline for elaboration of regional type-lists or alternative classifications of lithic assemblages (e.g. Kolosov 1972; 1978; 1983; 1986; Gladilin 1976; Kukharchuk and Mesiats 1991a; Stepanchuk 1991; Chabai and Demidenko 1998).

The main technique used in spatial classification is the detailed techno-typological analysis of stone tool industries which involves a variety of statistical calculations (e.g. Bordes 1950; 1961; 1984; Bourgon 1957, see also Debenath and Dibble 1994; Larson and Kornfeld 1997; Herbertson 2002; Read 2016). The method of fossile directeur – or specific types – reduced in signifcance for some time but it is becoming increasingly clear that this method has not entirely lost its relevance. Increasingly, attention is being refocused not only to the morphological analysis of the retouched products but also to the reconstruction of the specific detail in terms of techniques used in the processing of the raw materials, methods for producing blanks and the methods of their further processing.

There are various approaches to the spatial classification of Middle Palaeolithic stone tool industries in Ukraine both in general and within discrete regional studies (Kolosov et al. 1993; Stepanchuk 1998; Chabai and Marks 1998; Sytnyk 2000; 2003; Kolesnik 2003). There are also different approaches to the characterisation of the technical and typological features of stone tool industries and to the explanation of the reasons behind specific features (Gladilin 1985; 1997; Kolosov et al. 1993; Sytnyk 2000; Chabai 2004; Stepanchuk 2006; Demidenko 2015). The aim of this research is the classification of sites and types of industries over time, with a view to tracking apparent links between the synchronous and diachronic characteristics of lithic industries.

Setting the Lower and the Middle Palaeolithic of Ukraine in context

Initially, and at least until the end of the 1950s, the Early (i.e. Lower and Middle) Palaeolithic was considered (in Ukraine) to be a universal stage of human society in prehistory (Bonch-Osmolovskiy 1934; Efimenko 1953) and differences in the appearance of m...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Contributors
• Introduction: Malcolm C. Lillie and Inna D. Potekhina
• 1. Studying the Lower and Middle Palaeolithic of Ukraine: main trends, discussions and results: Vadim Stepanchuk
• 2. The Upper Palaeolithic: Leonid Zaliznyak
• 3. Landscape change, human–landscape interactions and societal developments in the Mesolithic period: Leonid Zalyznyak
• 4. The Neolithic period in Ukraine: Mykola Tovkailo
• 5. The prehistoric populations of Ukraine: population dynamics and group composition: Inna D. Potekhina
• 6. Radiocarbon dating of sites in the Dnieper Region and western Ukraine: Malcolm C. Lillie, Chelsea Budd and Inna D. Potekhina
• 7. Palaeopathology of the prehistoric populations of Ukraine: Malcolm C. Lillie
• 8. The prehistoric populations of Ukraine: stable Isotope studies of fisher-hunter-forager and pastoralist-incipient farmer dietary pathways: Chelsea Budd and Malcolm C. Lillie
• 9. The adoption of agriculture: archaeobotanical studies and the earliest evidence for domesticated plants: Giedre Motuzaite Matuzeviciute
• 10. The genetic landscape of Ukraine from the Early Holocene to the early metal ages: Alexey G. Nikitin