GRAVETTIAN INDUSTRY OF MEZHYHIRTSI I SITE

Abstract

Long-term interdisciplinary studies of the multilayer Paleolithic sites in the Middle Dniester (1950—1970s: O. Chernysh, I. Ivanova) allowed creating a cultural-chronological scheme for the development of a local Gravettian technocomplex. The key sites of these investigations are the Molodovo V and Korman IV Paleolithic sites, where the Gravettian levels belong to the chronological period from 28000—29000 to 22000—19000 years ago. Based on the data of archeology and stratigraphy of these and other sites, the Gravettian industries of the Dniester valley were subdivided into five stages (M. Otte, P. Noiret, V. Chirica, I. Borziak). At the same time, one of the earliest Gravettian sites of this region, Mezhigirtsy, which was investigated in the 1970—1980s, is often ignored in the periodization of the local Gravettian, or mistakenly refers to a later period. Previously, the lithic industry of the site was assigned to the third stage of the Dniester Gravettian. The collection of Mezhigirtsy I site is characterized by the production of wide blades (3—5 cm in width / up to 15 cm long) from unidirectional and bi-directional volumetric cores by a soft hammer. The predominance of massive dihedral burins, burins on a break, burins on truncation above the end scrapers. A typological set is characterized by backed tools as Gravettian points, «Rgani» knives, backed bladelets, micro-Gravettian points, microsaws. At the same time, there are no shouldered points. Additionally, one of the characteristic features of the inventory is the presence of bifacial leaf-shaped points. The technical-typological data and the dating of the site (28—27 kyr) allow us to confidently attribute the industry to the earlier stage (second stage) of the «Middle Dniester» or to the early stage of the formation of the «Molodovo culture». At the same time, the industry has certain features of the so-called Pavlovian culture of eastern Gravettian.