Pages: 29-50

The paper deals with the problem of the origins of Gravettian in the Russian plain. The authors questions the widely held idea that the Late Gravettian appeared in Central Europe earlier than in Eastern Europe. While the migrationist hypothesis of the Gravettian origin in Eastern Europe has a deep historiographical tradition, it cannot be regarded as having no alternative. The variability of the Gravettian on the Russian plain may well reflect the polygenetic nature of this phenomenon. There are grounds to suppose that the formation of Gravettian in Eastern Europe was a result of a complex combination of different factors, including both local developments and external influences from Central Europe.

Keywords: Eastern Europe, Central Europe, Russian Plain, Gravettian, Kostenki-Avdeevo culture, Pavlovian.

Information about author:

Konstantin Gavrilov (Moscow, Russian Federation). Candidate of Historical Sciences. Institute of Archaeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences.  Dmitry Ulyanov St., 19, Moscow, 117036, Russian Federation
E-mail: [email protected]