Mezinian landscape system (Late Upper Palaeolithic of Eastern Europe)

Abstract

In the geographical environment of the pleniglacial steppes of the great plain of Eastern Europe, the palaeoeconomy of the Mezinian is based on intensive and systematic mammoth exploitation and largely completed by other species of biozone of this region. The Mezinian hunters are organized in a network of numerous groups of about 30 people. The human groups settled in residential settlements (with large huts in mammoth bones) of long occupation in the year, from which travels are operated inside the territory sometimes longer than 600 km for activities of hunting, raw material procurement, groupings and intergroup meetings. The movements of human groups are known by the presence of small seasonal sites, without mammoth bone structures, and also by the presence of non-local raw materials: several types of flint, transparent or dark grey rock crystal, chalcedony, amber, and seashells.