Geo log i cal Quar terly, 2007, 51 (2): 189–192
Mous terian ar ti facts from the unique Vistulian loess-palaeosol se quence at Kolodiiv (East Carpathian Fore land, Ukraine)
Oleksandr SYTNYK, Andrij BOGUCKYJ and Maria £ANCZONT
Sytnyk O., Boguckyj A. and £anczont M. (2007) — Mous terian ar ti facts from the unique Vistulian loess-palaeosol se quence at Kolodiiv (East Carpathian Fore land, Ukraine). Geol. Quart., 51 (2): 189–192. Warszawa.
The re mains of a Mous terian cul tural layer were found on the solifluction ho ri zon at kolodiiv, Ukraine, sep a rat ing two Early Vistulian palaeosols. The geological po si tion of the finds and the ty po logi cal char ac ter is tics of the as sem blage al low us to re fer this site to the bifacial tech niques of the “East-Micoquian Route of De vel op ment”.
Oleksandr Sytnyk, Ivan Krypiakevyè In sti tute of Ukrai nian Stud ies, Na tional Acad emy of Sci ences of Ukraine, Kozelnycka 4, 79026 Lvov, Ukraine, e-mail: sytnyk@lviv.farlep.net; Andrij Boguckyj, De part ment of Ge og ra phy, Lvov Uni ver sity, Dorošenka 41, 290000 Lvov, Ukraine; Maria £anczont, De part ment of Phys i cal Ge og ra phy and Palaeo ge ogra phy, Maria Cu rie-Sk³odowska Uni ver sity, al.
Kraœnicka 2 C D, PL-20-718 Lublin, Po land, e-mail: lanczont@biotop.umcs.lublin.pl (re ceived: March 3, 2006; ac cepted: Jan u ary 17, 2007).
Key words: Dniester Re gion, Mid dle Palaeo lithic, bifacial tech niques.
The Kolodiiv site is sit u ated on the right side of the Sivka River (a small right trib u tary of the Dniester River), not far from its mouth on the Dniester River, in the west ern part of the vil lage of Kolodiiv in the Halyè Prydnistrov’ja re gion (Fig. 1). Mous - terian finds were dis cov ered on a steep slope ris ing above 20 m over the val ley bot tom. From a geomorphological as pect it is a Pleis to cene sec ond ter race cov ered by a thick man tle of loess.
The stra tig ra phy of the Qua ter nary de pos its near Kolodiiv was de scribed for the first time by Demedyuk and Khrystoforova (1975). The Pleis to cene de pos its were later in - ves ti gated by A. Boguckyj, M. £anczont and oth ers (Madeyska, 2002). Dur ing ex plor atory study of pro file 3 (see
£anczont and Boguckyj, 2002) three flint ar ti facts and some pieces of char coal from a fire place were found at a depth of 12.5–12.9 m, in the solifluction ho ri zon sep a rat ing two Early Vistulian palaeosols (Kolodiiv 3 and Kolodiiv 2). All the in di - ca tions are that these finds are re mains of a Mous terian cul tural layer (Sytnyk, 2000; Cyrek and Sytnyk, 2002). These Mid dle Palaeo lithic ma te ri als were found in 1991. How ever, the large-scale ex ca va tions made in 1999 (Fig. 2, pro file 4), 2000 (pro file 4/5) and 2003 (pro file 5) turned out to be fruit less (£anczont and Boguckyj, 2002). The lo ca tion of the pro files in - ves ti gated is shown in Fig ure 1.
The flint ar ti facts are made from good-qual ity flint from Turonian (Up per Cre ta ceous) strata. Deposits with gray and
black Turonian flints oc cur in the Up per Dniester Re gion (Polanskyj, 1935). Ar ti facts look “fresh”, with out me chan i cal dam ages or traces of weath er ing.
The first ob ject (Fig. 3) is a par tial bifacial bi-lon gi tu di - nal-con vex knife made from a mas sive flake of short ened pro - por tions. The work ing edge is smoothed out by easy re moval and flat resharpens dor sal re touch which co mes to the back of the ob ject. The sec ond flint ob ject (Fig. 4) ais also a par tial bifacial prod uct. It is a lon gi tu di nal dor sal knife with a large ven tral re touch. The third ob ject is a usual mar ginal flake of three-cor nered shape with a nat u ral (con cre tion) plat form. It is a by-prod uct.
The near est anal o gies are the as sem blages of the Ripièeni-Izvor strati graphic suc ces sions on the Prut River. In the mono graph by Pâunescu (1993) de voted to this multilayer site we can re trace the de vel op ment of the stone pro duc tion in the re gion be tween the Prut and Dniester rivers, be gin ning from the Riss–Würm (Premousterian) and end ing with the interstadial of Lasceaux–Würm III (Gra vet tian). It is a unique chron i cle of the de vel op ment of the Mid dle and Up per Palaeo - lithic, which can be cor re lated with the strati graphi cal col umn of the cul tural lay ers of the Molodovo V site.
The Mous terian lay ers (I–VI) of the Ripièeni-Izvor lie on clayey soil at depth in the in ter val 6–10 m and are dated to the Amersfoort–Hengelo (Podgradem) in ter val. How ever, only
lay ers V–VI of the Ripièeni-Izvor are char ac ter ized by ex plicit Micoquian tra di tions of bifacial pro cess ing and broad us ing of Levallois tech niques. The Levallois tech nol ogy be gins from the “Premousterian” ma te ri als which were found not far from the lime stone bed rock. It is in ter est ing that the “Premousterian”
and Mous terian lay ers I–III do not have not bifacial shapes (Pâunescu, 1993). This means that bifacial tech nol o gies of Micoquian char ac ter ap peared here only af ter Moershoofd, in the pe riod be fore Hengelo (nearly 40 thou sand years ago).
The rich est Micoquian cul tural layer IV of the Ripièeni-Izvor has a Levallois in dex of 38.8 and 16.59% for blades. The bifacial tech nique is rep re sented by the Micoquian knives and scrap ers of partly bifacial char ac ter. It seems that the Mous terian as sem blages of bifacial tra di tion in the Dniester and Prut re gions (Yezupil, layer II; Kolodiiv; Ripièeni-Izvor, Mous terian lev els) are char ac ter ized by Micoquian el e ments of bifacial prod ucts, seg ment-like knives and scrap ers with length ened pro por tions, and three-cor nered shaped points.
Marked an a logues of the bifacial tools of the Dniester Re - gion oc cur in East ern Ger many, Mous terian (Riss–Würm, Eem) sites with bifacial Micoquian tools. The sites of the Ilm val ley are well known, es pe cially the trav er tine com plexes of Weimar, Taubach and Ehringsdorf, which con tain spe cial cul - tural groups (Ma nia and Toepfer, 1973). Among im por tant sites of this pe riod may be in cluded the ma te ri als of Rabutz sit - u ated be tween Leip zig and Halle.
An a logues to the partly-bifacial prod ucts (with basal-ven - tral large re touch) from Kolodiiv were found among the ma te ri - als from Saalfeld in East Ger many (Ma nia and Toepfer, 1973, taf. 71.1). For ex am ple, there was found a blade-flake with
190 Olexandr Sytnyk, Andrij Boguckyj and Maria £anczont
Fig. 1. A — lo ca tion of pro files in ves ti gated at Kolodiiv; A’ — sketch map of loess re gional dis tri bu tion (af ter £anczont and Boguckyj, 2007)
Fig. 2. Sit u a tion of the Mous terian cul tural layer in the loess-palaesol se quence of the Kolodiiv 4 pro file
Mousterian artifacts from the unique Vistulian loess-palaeosol sequence at Kolodiiv (East Carpathian Foreland, Ukraine) 191
Fig. 3. Flint ar ti fact form Kolodiiv, the par tial bifacial bi-lon gi tu di nal-con vex knife
Fig. 4. Flint ar ti fact form Kolodiiv, the lon gi tu di nal dor sal knife with ven tral large re touch
broad fac ets and shapeforming re touch alongsides. On the ven - tral sur face we can ob serve a large re moval scar and small scars of re touch of the strik ing plat form. The near est an a logues oc cur in the Pr¹dnik val ley caves near Ojców in Po land (Koz³owski and Koz³owski, 1996).
Sim i lar tools were found at the site of Döbris-Pirkau (Ma - nia and Toepfer, 1973, taf. 69.2). These au thors pointed out the sim i lar ity of these tools to the Pr¹dnik type knifes from the Wylotne Cave at Ojców (Chmielewski, 1969; Koz³owski and Koz³owski, 1996). The ma te ri als from the “A”-layer of Königsaue are the near est mor pho log i cal analogues. The like - ness of these ob jects could be found in the shapes, scales and tech niques of lat eral sur face for ma tion and the tech niques of the edge pre par ing.
There are many other well-known sites in Ger many with orig i nal Micoquian tool shapes: Hyänenhöhle in Gera-Lindentaler, Gera-Pfortener, Zwickau, Wolftitz and
elsewhere (Ma nia and Toepfer, 1973, taf. 69–71), Fontmaure (Velleches, Vienne), Lichtenberg, Lkr. Lüchow-Dannenberg, Boxgrove (G.-B.), West Sus sex.
Thus, the ev i dence of typologically clear bifacial tools in a geo log i cally clear po si tion (the solifluction ho ri zon sep a rat ing two Early Vistulian palaeosols which over lie Eemian gyttja) pro vides a ba sis for re fer ring this site to the bifacial tech niques
“East-Micoquian Route of De vel op ment”. An a logues finds in re spect of chro nol ogy, ge ol ogy, and tech ni cal typology oc cur in layer II of the nearby Yezupil site (Boguckyj et al., 2001). At pres ent, ge netic unity of these sites seems clear.
Sites with typ i cal East-Micoquian el e ments have been dis - cov ered and partly in ves ti gated in the Dniester Re gion only dur ing the last de cade. They are rep re sented by small col lec - tions but in spite of the pau city of found ar ti facts they are typologically de ter mined prod ucts, which un doubt edly be long to the “cul tural rate”.
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