Alexander Bessudnov

Alexander Bessudnov

The reasons for the high concentration of Paleolithic settlements in the Kostenki-Borschevo area as compared to the individual isolated sites outside its boundaries were always a challenge for scholars. In 2004–2008, a number of Paleolithic sites were investigated near Divnogorie (50 km downstream the Don from Kostenki). Divnogorie 1 was a short-term horse-hunting camp. Among the stone tools, endscrapers of the usual shapes, burins on truncations and truncated points predominate. Backed implements are also encountered. At Divnogorie 9, almost intact skeletons of Equus ferus (numbering at least 15 animals) have been discovered in the humic loam under Allered soil. The fl int assemblage that accompanied the bones is identical with that of Divnogorie 1. The morphological features of the lithic implements, the 7 radiocarbon dates of about 12000– 13000 BP, and the geological position of the sites allow to defi ne the industry as one of the latest within the late Upper Paleolithic.