Revealing of palaeogeographic changes during the Pryluky and Tyasmyn stages in the Middle Dniester Area for reconstructions of the Paleolithic Man environments

Abstract

The palaeoenvironmental reconstructions in this paper are based on results of grain-size and pollen analyses. Lithological characteristics of deposits of the Pryluky and Tyasmyn stages in the section of the Tovtry Cave (the Middle Dniester Basin) are presented, as well as pollen data from the corresponding deposits. On the basis of pollen succession of the last interglacial in the underlying beds, the pollen data, presented in the section studied, are related to the 1st stadial and the 1st interstadial of the early glacial (the Tyasmyn and the early Pryluky stages). The results of pollen and lithological methods in their palaeogeographical implication correspond well. The data obtained enables the reconstruction of vegetational and climatic changes in the Middle Dniester Area during the Tyasmyn and early Pryluky times when the Middle Palaeolithic population occupied intensely the Dniester valley but also exploited the resources on plateau. The absence of pollen of broad-leaved trees and the appearance of palynomorphs of cryophytes indicate a subperiglacial climate of the Tyasmyn stage. The spread of mixed forest with broad-leaved trees in its composition during the early Pryluky times proves that the climate of this warm interstadials was south-boreal, slightly cooler than the modern one. Two phases of the early Pryluky interstadial (pl1b1 and pl1b2) were separated by the phase of slight cooling and aridification that demonstrates short-period climatic changes. In order to reconstruct reliably palaeoenvironments of the Paleolithic population in the Middle Dniester area, the multidisciplinary approach should be implemented (particularly, the modern geochronological methodologies) and the new study objects, including the cave traps of paleontological and archaeological remains, have to be investigated.