Abstract
The article is devoted to the first synthesis informing the location of the dwellings in the Upper Palaeolithic site Gontsy, their size and architecture, and provides a provisional inventory of their components. There were discovered six mammoth bone huts, five of which were revealed during the French-Ukrainian excavations in progress since 1993. For the first time, it may be given a comprehensive reconstruction of a campsite and all the activities made by hunters during their occupation at the site. The six mammoth bone dwellings of various dimensions are described here for the first time, for a preliminary synthesis. The history of the Gontsy site excavations is given. The first excavations by narrow trenches were carried out in 1873. The first step has concerned the excavations of the mammoth bone bed (1995—2000) and the stratigraphic connections with the dwelling area. The description of all the dwellings is also given by the author, as well as the notes about a specific method for studying mammoth bone dwellings. As to the author, after excavation, the study of a dwelling starts by a data acquisition phase with a precise map per square meter with the most accurate possible archaeozoological determination of each bone. A 3D recording by digital photogrammetry complete the manual record. For the first time, in the history of the excavations of mammoth bone dwellings, with the method of conservation in situ under large hangars for protection, all the archaeological layers and dwelling structures: mammoth bone dwellings, pits, hearths, working areas, dumping areas, butchering areas, are preserved for the preparation of a future site museum in Gontsy, open to the public.
Highlights
25 campaigns of excavations have been made at the site of Gontsy (Gintsy in Ukrainian transcription) (Ukraine, Poltava region), without interruption since 1993, conducted by a team from the Institute of archaeology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine and the CNRS UMR 7041 ArScAn laboratory, under the direction of Lioudmila Iakovleva and François Djindjian
The Gontsy site was the first Palaeolithic site known in Eastern Europe, whose discovery returned to G.S
Brusov, has excavated an important area of 380 m2 since the archaeological level of mammoth bones accumulation in the fossil gullies up to the settlement of the promontory, where several pits located at the south of the 1915 hut were found (Levytskyi, 1947; Brusov, 1940)
Summary
25 campaigns of excavations have been made at the site of Gontsy (Gintsy in Ukrainian transcription) (Ukraine, Poltava region), without interruption since 1993, conducted by a team from the Institute of archaeology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine and the CNRS UMR 7041 ArScAn laboratory, under the direction of Lioudmila Iakovleva and François Djindjian. All the spatial components of a late Upper Palaeolithic hunter-gatherer campsite have been recognized. It may be given a comprehensive reconstruction of a campsite and all the activities made by hunters during their occupation. The six mammoth bone dwellings of various dimensions are described here for the first time, for a preliminary synthesis
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