Middle Palaeolithic sites in the vicinity of Mariampil on Dnister River

Abstract

Over many years of archaeological research a number of Middle Paleolithic sites have been discovered in the vicinity of Mariampil, including Bukivna IV, Bukivna V, Yezupil I, Kolodiiv, Mariampil I, Mariampil V and others. The site of Mariampil I was discovered in the 1920s by Yu. Polanski. Since then the site has not been researched, although it is quite promising from the point of view of the Middle and Upper Palaeolithic studies in the region. In 2014, the study of the site was renewed using a number of modern methods of natural sciences. The samples were taken from the section of the site. Samples were taken every 0.2 m from the loess horizons and every 0.1 m from the Horokhiv fossil pedocomplex for granulometric analysis, general chemical analyses (humus content, Fe2O3, CaCO3). A number of samples were also taken for absolute dating of the sediments (TL, OSL), palynological research, as well as from certain horizons of the Horokhiv fossil pedocomplex for micromorphological research and analysis of biomarkers. The history of research, the geological structure and the archaeological material of Mariampil I were highlighted in the article. The association of the oldest (fourth) cultural layer, which was found by Yu. Polanski and confirmed by our fieldwork in 2014–2015, with the eluvial horizon of Horokhiv fossil pedocomplex (MIS 5e) was determined. It was dated by the OSL method at 102+16 ka BP and it correlates well with the archaeological determination of the age of the artifacts. As a result of the research, a large amount of factual material was obtained concerning the structure of the Upper Pleistocene loess-soil sequence, whose thickness is over 17 m, which is abnormally high for the Halych-Dnister region. Information about two important stratified Middle Palaeolithic sites in Ivano-Frankivsk region is also given. This is a three-layer Palaeolithic site of Yezupil I of Tysmenytsia district and Mariampil V of Halych district, which by chronological position and cultural and technological tradition are analogues of Mariampil I. Numerous Middle Palaeolithic sites in the vicinity of Mariampil on the Dnister River indicate a quite powerful centre of the Neanderthal communities in this area. Key words: Mousterian, Micoquien, Upper Palaeolithic, loess-soil sequence, Halych-Dnister region.

Main problems of the research on the Palaeolithic of Halych-Dnister region (Ukraine)

“…Furthermore, in addition to the new sites, we should also pay attention to previously discovered but not enough investigated ones. This is especially true of promising multilayered archaeological sites such as Mariampil I, which was discovered by Ukrainian geologist and archaeologist Yuriy Polanśkyj in the 1920s [2,4,18].…”

“…The loess horizons of the Pleistocene covers of Halych-Dnister region are often featured by substantial thicknesses, namely, the Middle Pleistocene Dnipro loess horizon is reaching the maximum (about 14 m) values within Ukraine in the Halych section [5]. Horizons of Upper Pleistocene loesses (sections Mariampil I, Halych IIC) are also very substantial (up to 20 m) [2,5]. It should also be noted that in the Halych section, the total thickness of the Pleistocene deposits is about 50 m, which is one of the largest for Volhyn-Podillia and adjacent areas of the Forecarpathians.…”

“…It is important that many of the loess sections of the Pleistocene of Halych-Dnister region contain one or more Middle and Upper Palaeolithic cultural horizons (Palaeolithic sites Yezupil I-X [6,10], Halych І-ІІ [3,13,14], Mariampil І, V [2,4,15], Kolodiiv [16], Kozyno, Mezhyhirtsi [17], Hannusivka, Dovhe, Stryhantsi, Roshniv, etc. [18,19], see Figure 3).…”

“…Geological sections and cultural horizons of archaeological sites were dated by radiocarbon and different luminescent methods. During the study of the sites, great attention was paid to the analysis of both palaeo and modern relief [2][3][4], the natural living conditions of the ancient man in the territory of Halych-Dnister region [5][6][7][8][9], the conditions of preservation and redeposition of cultural horizons, etc. [3,10,11].…”

Palaeolithic site of Novyi Tik: stratigraphic and palaeogeographic aspects

“…(Fedorowicz et al, 2013;Kusiak et al, 2012). У найповніших розрізах Західної України (Колодіїв, Пронятин, Маріямпіль, Галич) виділено три колодіївських ґрунти, відокремлені рівнями кріогенезу та лесоподібними утвореннями (Łanczont & Boguckyj, 2007;Łanczont et al, 2015a, b;Bogucki et al, 2019). Нижній колодіївський ґрунт (Колодіїв-3) сформувався під лісостепом, тоді як молодші ґрунти (Колодіїв-1 і Колодіїв-2) є степовими (Łanczont et al, 2015a).…”