New data on Mammoth bone settlements of Eastern Europe in the light of the new excavations of the Gontsy site (Ukraine)

Abstract

Preliminary results of the new excavations realised during the past 10 years at the Gontsy site (Ukraine) are given here, placed in the context of the famous late Upper Palaeolithic mammoth bone dwelling settlements of Eastern Europe. The knowledge of the area of the mammoth bone dwelling settlements is today limited to the middle and upper Dnepr basin over a landscape of about 400×200 km 2 and within a chronology between 15 000 and 14 000 BP. Research at the Gontsy site has focused on the advantageous location of the settlement on a promontory of a terrace cut by ravines going down to the river, on the different dwelling structures, on the various activity remains around the dwellings, and on the accumulation of animal bones, mainly young mammoths, mixed with stone tools, bone tools and hearths in the paleoravines.