Alexander Matyukhin

The article considers Paleolithic sites located in the basin of Severskiy Donets. The abundance of Paleolithic sites on the territory of both the Ukraine and Russia can be explained by flintstone and quartzite deposits. The Severskiy Donets valley contains sites starting from pre-Moustier and ending with the terminal stage of Late Paleolithic. The most ancient finds (Khriaschi, Mikhailovskoye) may be dated from Mindel to Mindel-Riss. The article covers finds from various seasons. The sites near the Kalitvenskaya stanitsa were workshops for primary treatment of quartzite and manufacturing of tools. The sites at Biruch’ya Balka are stratified. At Biruch’ya Balka, a large amount of archeological and natural science investigations were carried out, allowing to reconstruct the environment and determine the age of Moustier and Late Paleolithic horizons at 45 to 25 thousand years before the present time. Besides traditional items, the industries of Moustier horizons contain expressive prismatic nuclei and plates. Late Paleolithic horizon 3 contains a large amount of triangular points. The other monuments at Biruch’ya Balka are Late Paleolithic. These are workshops where bifacial tools were produced. At the nearby Kremenskaya Balka, 2 workshops for preliminary working of flint were discovered. At Mikhailovskaya Balka, preliminary investigations yielded a limited number of tools: scrapers and side-scrapers, with little typological differentiation. Middle Paleolithic sites in the Severskiy Donets valley and the South of the Russian Plain allow to presume the transition from Middle to Late Paleolithic on the territory.