The Upper Paleolithic of the Central Russian Plain examines the hunter-gatherer adaptations on the Upper Paleolithic central Russian Plain. The book offers both a culture history for the area and an explanation for the changes in human adaptation. It presents what has been found at 29 major Upper Paleolithic sites occupied over a period of some 14,000 years.
The book presents details of the archaeological inventories and assemblages found at the 29 sites, together with the geography and geology of the study area. It then uses environmental data to model environmental conditions and resource distribution during the various periods of human occupation, as well as to predict optimal strategies for exploiting available resources. Subsequent chapters present the relative and chronometric dating schemes. The book also elucidates the man-land relationships, ensuing subsistence strategies, settlement types present in the archaeological record, settlement systems, and sociopolitical behavior.
The text will be significant to archaeologists, paleoecologists, and anthropologists interested in hunter-gatherers and late Pleistocene adaptations.

Contenu

List of Figures
List of Tables
Preface
Acknowledgments
1 Introduction
Objectives and Significance
Past Research in the Study Area
History of Paleolithic Archaeology in the USSR
Methodology and Assumptions
2 Upper Paleolithic Sites on the Central Russian Plain
Geography and Geomorphology of the Study Area
Pleistocene Stratigraphy and Chronology
Profiles of the Sites
Raw Data Tables
3 The Environmental Given
The Study Area Today
General Features of the Late Valdai
The Bryansk Interstadial: 27,000-24,000 B.P.
Environment between 24,000 and 20,000 B.P.
The Valdai Maximum: 20,000-18,000 B.P.
Climate after the Glacial Maximum: 18,000-12,000 B.P.
The Structure of the Landscape in the Late Valdai
4 Chronology and Land Use
Relative Dating of the Sites
Chronometrie Dating of the Sites
Proposed Chronological Ordering of the Sites
Upper Paleolithic Land Use: The Location of the Sites
Conclusions
5 Subsistence Practices and Duration of Occupation in the Late Valdai
Methodology
Subsistence and Floral Resources
Storage Strategies
Subsistence and Faunal Resources
Seasonality of Occupation
Modeling Changes in Subsistence Practices
6 Site Types and the Settlement System
Settlement Systems: Present and Past
Data from the Central Russian Plain
Classificatory Methodology
Types of Sites on the Central Russian Plain
Population and Duration of Occupation
Settlement System Analysis
7 Sociopolitical Integration
Introduction
Assumptions and Methodology
Social Networks
Sociopolitical Relationships and Organization
Ritual Behavior
Summary and Conclusions
8 Conclusions and Implications
Introduction
Data and Models
Problems of Temporal and Spatial Scale
The Central Russian Plain Microcosm and the European Upper Paleolithic World
The Data and Our Theoretical Constructs
References
Index