Pages: 523-537

The archaeology and paleoecology of the Steppe Zone of Southern and Eastern Europe are critical to understanding of prehistoric adaptation in this enormous but poorly known region. An essential element of this research is the reconstruction of paleoenviroments and their relation to subsistence practices and settlement systems on local and regional levels. This article is an example of such a research for the Don river delta and immediately surrounding area. This delta and the adjacent coast of the Azov Sea contains one of the richest known concentrations of Russian Upper Paleolithic sites, the Kamennaya Balka sites. In this article we discuss the available paleoenviromental data (stratigraphy, evolution of the vegetation cover and paleosoil layers) and propose a model for the reconstruction of the living conditions at the site Kamennaya Balka II. Many of traditional ideas and views about Pleistocene time in the Noth Black Sea area are revised and replaced with a new model.