Environment reconstruction of western Ukraine based on Paleolithic archaeological site studies

We are pleased to announce the latest geoarchaeological publication published in Quaternary International, including four researchers from our Institute among the authors:

Łanczont M., Komar M., Madeyska T., Mroczek P.Standzikowski K.Hołub B., Fedorowicz S., Sytnyk O., Bogucki A., Dmytruk R., Yatsyshyn A., Koropetskyi R., Tomeniuk O., 2022. Spatio-temporal variability of topoclimates and local palaeoenvironments in the Upper Dniester River Valley: Insights from the Middle and Upper Palaeolithic key-sites of the Halych region (western Ukraine). Quat. Int. 632, 112–131. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2021.10.013

The lowest section of the Upper Dniester River Valley (DRV), located between the uplands of Opillia and Eastern Subcarpathians, was a separate and specific Pleistocene geoecosystem, interesting for the hunter-gatherer communities. This is evidenced by three main (Yezupil, Mariampil and Halych), and a dozen or so additional Palaeolithic open-air sites. They occur as cultural layers within the loess-palaeosol sequences (LPSs) and represent semi-permanent settlement (except for the periods with the maximum intensity of the loess sedimentation); the oldest occur in the Eemian palaeosol. All sites are located on both sides of the river. In the past, the DRV was characterized by local environmental diversity changing with time. In consequence, it has very individual features, so the analysis of environmental changes is a local case study. In order to obtain information about the changes of climate and environment, the multi-proxy analyses were carried out. Chronology was based on the luminescence and radiocarbon dating. The diversity of habitats was local. Its degree was changing with time: it was minimal in the periods with extreme climatic conditions, such as the climate optimum and pessimum, and clearly greater in the climatically intermediate periods with fluctuations. Based on the materials indicating the mesoclimate and local vegetation diversity during the human occupation episodes as well as the location of the Palaeolithic sites, we found that generally the possibilities of choosing a warmer or sheltered place for a camp were not significant for hunters representing different cultures of different ages. Palaeolithic groups very often occupied the same places in the DRV. The camps had a hunting function, the choice of places was dictated primarily by the need to find a good place to observe game animals and to organize hunting – first of all – in the mouth sections of the tributaries of the Dniester River, regardless of the situation of localities relative to riverplains. The settlement attractiveness of such places was essentially timeless. 

Publication list of Institute staff 

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    Date of addition
    11 August 2022