Initial settlement of the Upper Volga region, Centre of the East European Plain, in the Late Glacial and Early Holocene (based on geoarchaeological research in the Zabolotsky peat bog area)

Abstract

The study of the settlement of the Central European Plain during the Late Glacial time has until recently been hampered by the predominance of the view that large glacial lakes were widespread in the upper Volga basin during the Valdai (Weichselian) glaciation, which prevented settlement of vast territories and population migration to the ice-free Fennoscandia from the east and south-east. According to the glacial lake concept, the lowlands along the Dubna River – a tributary of the Volga River – were occupied by the vast Tver Lake in the Late Valdai epoch, the presence of which was previously thought to exclude the possibility of its development until the Pleistocene-Holocene boundary, when the process of deglaciation finally drained those areas. To test this concept, special geoarchaeological studies were undertaken, which included, in addition to traditional archaeological research, the study of the development history of landscapes by methods of geology and geomorphology. It was established that fluvial rather than lacustrine environments dominated the area during the Late Valdai Ice Age, which made possible its occupation by prehistoric population. In support of that, radiocarbon ages of around 15,500cal BP were obtained from the artifacts corresponding the initial settlement of the Dubna Lowland. The pioneers were populations of the Resseta culture with the East Gravettian traditions. Later, in the Early Holocene, there is a transformation of the Ressetian industry into the Zadnepilevo culture. Seasonal migrations of the Ressetian and Zadnepilevian population are recorded not only by materials of the East European Plain, but also the Scandinavian Peninsula, where the monuments of “eastern impulse” are represented.