No abstract

The site of Sabatynivka I in the middle part of the Sothern Bug region is known for its collection, a partial analysis of which made it possible to attribute the site to the stage B1 of Cucuteni-Trypillia and to the Sabatynivka culture of the Late Bronze Age. The results of excavations in the 1938—1939 and 1947—1948 have not been fully published. The scientific archive ofthe OAM NASU contains sources that make it possible to reconstruct the excavated trenches (data on the stratigraphy and planigraphy of the site). Over the past years, Odesa I. I. Mechikov National University team has made his didactic research on the site. New finds made it possible to obtain data on the chronology of the settlement; paleopedological analysis was also carried out at the two sections. The obtained results allow us to consider in more detail the climatic conditions and the environment of the population of the paleometallic epoch of the settlement.

The main focus of this paper is to present the stone assemblage of one of the Lower Palaeolithic layers of Medzhibozh 1. Detailed typological and technological characteristics of the stone industry of layer III of the locality Medzhibozh 1 are given against the background of geomorphological characteristics and features of the Quaternary structure of the area. Medzhibozh 1 represents one of several multi-layered sites of Lower Palaeolithic age on the Upper Bug, among which are also Medzhibozh A, Golovchintsy 1 and Golovchintsy 2. Two layers containing Lower Palaeolithic evidence are distinguished in the profile of Medzhibozh to date. Medzhibozh 1 layer III is more recent, the age of culture-bearing sediments is currently correlated to MIS 11. This dating is fundamentally consistent with diverse biostratigraphic indications as well as several pilot ESR dates ranging between 373– 399 thousand years. Geomorphological features of the structure of the Medzhibozh area allow for the age estimation of culture-bearing sediments as older and presumably attribute them to MIS 15– 13. Despite its relatively young age, the Medzhibozh 1 layer III industry demonstrates quite archaic technology and typology. The knapping technology is almost totally characterised by the application of the bipolar on anvil technique. The basic range of lithic products includes bipolar cores, segmented supports, choppers, segments, flakes, and debris. Despite the abundance of items with signs of utilisation, pieces with secondary worked edges are isolated and atypical. Well-defined types of flake tools are practically not present. There are no freehand cores. There is no indication of use of bifacial technology. Currently, there is absolutely no formal ground to attribute the industry to the Acheulean. Instead, the Medzhibozh 1 layer III industry can currently be compared to a “ core-and-flake” industry, what is traditionally defined as Oldowan or mode 1. Perhaps the reason for the observed archaism can to some extent be explained by the properties of the available raw materials (granitoides of crystalline shield and mostly small-sized siliceous supports of Upper Cretaceous age) and the economic profile of occupation or recovered area (recurrent butchering site).

The problems regarding hunter-gatherer/early farmer interactions are quite an important topic in southeast European archaeology. According to the available data, the two economic subsistence systems have coexisted for some 2000 years during the 6th–4th millennia cal BC (Telegin 1985; Lillie et al., 2001). In some areas, hunter-gatherer and early farmer sites are located just a few kilometers apart. The Southern Buh River valley has yielded evidence of Linear Pottery culture, early Trypillia and Trypillia B1 Neolithic settlements as well as hunter-gatherer sites with pottery attributable to the so-called sub-Neolithic or para-Neolithic (Haskevych et al., 2019; Kiosak et al., 2021). Trial-trenches have been opened within some of these sites, which have been radiocarbon-dated from Bern University laboratory (LARA). Soil samples for micromorphological analysis have been collected from these sites to interpret their paleogenetic formation. The soil development is attested since, at least, the beginning of the 5th mill BC, followed by the developed of chernozem soils, which was interrupted by an erosional episode in the end of 5th millennium BC. The available data show that the soils of early farmers arable as are the present day ones. The early farmers were able to exploit relatively heavy soils to cultivate wheat and barley as early as 5250–5050 cal BC. In contrast, the sites of ceramic hunter-gatherers were often located on the soils which formed under wet conditions along seasonally flooded riverbanks, which were almost unsuitable for agricultural practices.

The paper concerns the issue of using paleopedological data in order to reconstruct the ancient Man environments during the different periods of the Holocene. The soil sections, located within the ancient settlement (the excavation №1) and outside it (the excavation №2, the modern soil), have been studied at the archeological site of the Early Bronze Age in the Bar district of the Vinnytsia region, 150 m SW of the Murafa River and 1 km SW of the Malchivtsi village. The samples were taken for grain-size, bulk chemical, and micromorphological analyses, and large-scale field sketches with smears of natural material were made. Micromorphology of soil genetic horizons has been analyzed in sections with intact structure. Podzolization, lessivage, and clay weathering were the main processes in the soil formation (excavation №1) that allows to define it as transitional between Greyzem and Luvisol. The fact that the soil profile includes a large number of ‘krotovinas’, and carbonate material is present in some of them indicates that the carbonate horizon was located at a small depth below the soil.The settlement existed under predominance of forest landscapes of a fairly humid climate, as it is evidenced by the soil profile. The modern soil was studied in order to compare it with the paleosol of the settlement. According to macro- and micromorphological features, the modern soil can be defined as brown- podzolic forest, which humus-eluvial horizon is depleted in organic-iron material and it includes a huge number of light “washed” areas without typical complex aggregates. Thus, the features of ancient and modern soils indicate their formation in a humid, moderately warm climate of the forest-steppe zone. However, the profile of the ancient soil of the settlement, formed on the sandy substrate, was better differentiated into the eluvial and illivial genetic horizons. It has a significant number of ‘krotovinas’ and the features typical for cultivated soils. If the ancient soil is more similar to the podzolic soils, which at present spread to the north of the studied area, the modern soil, formed on loamy substrate, is closer to the Luvisol but still with the features of podsolization. This soil type evidences a wetter climate regime as compared to the ancient soil. The features of lessivage may indicate the dominance of deciduous (beech-hornbeam) forests in this area (the composition of their leaf mould is enriched in carbonates).