Pages: 291-303

The paper provides an overview of geometric microliths ftom the Palaeolithic-Eneolithic assemblages of the Upper Don area. Most of the artefacts described in this paper have never been published before. The authors use technological and typological attribues to identify the cultural affinity and chronological position of the assemblages in question. It is suggested that the Upper Don was an area of contacts between representatives of different cultural traditions, including those that had their roots in the Dnieper and Volga regions. Starting with the Early Holocene it became also an area of contacts between the forest and steppe communities.

Keywords: Upper Don, Late Palaeolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic, geometric microliths

Information about author:

Alexander Bessudnov (Lipetsk, Russian Federation). Candidate of Historical Sciences. Lipetsk State Pedagogical P. Semyonov-Tyan-Shansky University. Lenin St., 42, Lipetsk, 398020, Russian Federation
E-mail: [email protected]
Roman Smolyaninov (Lipetsk, Russian Federation). Candidate of Historical Sciences. Lipetsk State Pedagogical P. Semyonov-Tyan-Shansky University. Lenin St., 42, Lipetsk, 398020, Russian Federation
E-mail: [email protected]
Alexey Sviridov (Moscow, Russian Federation). N. N. Miklukho-Maklai Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology, Russian Academy of Sciences. Leninsky Ave., 32A, Moscow, 119991, Russian Federation
E-mail: [email protected]