Bones

Main article: Paleolithic in Russia

Kostyonkovsky-Streletsky archaeological culture is the oldest culture of a complex of paleolithic sites near the village of Kostyonki (Kostyonki XII - IA layer, Kostyonki XI - 5th layer). It was allocated in 1957 by A.N. Rogachev in the Kostenkovsky-Borshchevsky district.

The name of the site Streletskaya 2 (Kostenki 6) and its stone inventory served as the basis for highlighting the Streletsky archaeological culture of the early pore of the Upper Paleolithic. The stone industry of the Streletskaya 2 parking lot, opened in 1952 by A.N. Rogachev, is characterized by a developed two-sided secondary processing of dart tips and arrows - triangular with a concave (more often fit into an equilateral triangle), straightened or rounded base, in the form of a "poplar leaf."

Most monuments of Streletsky culture date back to the age of 32-23 thousand liters. n (Kostenki-12/1a, Garchi-1 , Sungir).

The first chronological group of monuments of Streletsky culture: Kostenki VI (5th layer) and Kostenki XII (3rd layer), Streletskaya II. One of the transitional cultures between the Middle and Upper Paleolithic, along with similar cultures of Eastern and Central Europe.

Most researchers call the Sungir Middle Paleolithic industries of Eastern Mikok as sources of genesis of Streletsky culture, to which a number of researchers attribute the site. Crimea However, the available data on the chronology, ecology, technology and typology of the Mycoca, Levallois-Mousterian and plate-shaped Mousterian technocomplexes of Eastern Europe do not allow to assume their participation in the composition of the Upper Paleolithic industries.

Streletskaya culture is represented at five parking lots in Kostenki (K1-V, K6, K11-V, K12-III, Borshchevo 5-IV) and in the parking lots Sungir, Garchi 1, Nepryakhino and Vysh outside Kostenok.

In the south, Streletsky culture is represented by the Biryuchya Balka II site on the Seversky Donets. Dating of Streletsky culture falls between 45 thousand liters. n for the cultural layer of V Kostenka-1 and 34 thousand liters. n on Sungiri, Visi and Garchi 1.

The Kostenkov-Streletsky culture is characterized by ground dwellings up to 35 m long and up to 9 m wide, the manufacture of Paleolithic Venus, hoe, etc.

As noted by P. M. Dolukhanov, at a late stage, Streletsky culture coexisted with a more developed Spitsyn culture, which had all typical Upper Paleolithic features.

Mammoth hunters in Kostenki

From the time of sapiens on our territory there are already many finds. In the European part, finds are presented in Kostenki, in the Khokholsky district of the Voronezh region. Many skeletons and a huge number of parking lots were found there, and it is not very clear why, but there, as people say, "honey is smeared."

In the case of Kostenki, we know that man came to this territory about 45 thousand years ago. Groups of people who fell into Kostenki, apparently, moved from Western Asia, then from the territory of modern Kostenok they went to explore Central and Western Europe. However, this place turned out to be an important point for ancient hunters in the endless routes of their migrations: their settlements in Kostenki have been recorded for almost 30 millennia.

The bones are recognized as the richest place in Russia for concentrating the sites of the Upper Paleolithic era - people of the modern type. Here, on the territory of about 10 km of ², over 60 sites have been opened (on a number of several dwellings, sometimes very large), dating from 45 to 15 thousand years^[1]). In connection with the huge area (although of different times) of settlement, researchers are looking for arguments in favor of recognizing Kostenok as one of the oldest proto-cities on the planet (with a population of 200-300 people at the same time). Kostyonkovsky ancient sites contain dwellings made of mammoth bones, above one of which a pavilion-museum was built.

By 2018, more than 60 ancient layers on 26 Upper Paleolithic monuments were discovered in Kostenki and Borshchevo. And the finds found on these partially studied monuments have compiled archaeological collections that are stored in different museums in Russia.

Neanderthals in Kostenki did not live, and the Sapiens both settled and lived, and now live. And the settlement of Kostenki, a village, is called for a reason, but because there are whole placers in every ravine of bones. And many skeletons were found there.

The most beautiful are Kostenki-2 and Kostenki-14, in which one of the oldest sapiens, 36 thousand years or so.

There are separate sites in Kostenki, during the study of which we can "read" the life story of our ancestors for their entire stay in Kostenki. For example, the parking lots Kostenki 12, Kostenki 14, Kostenki 17. These parking lots are called multi-layered. Some sites of Kostenok have 7-9 cultural layers.

Bones 17

The Paleolithic site of Kostenka-17 is a multi-layered monument where ancient people settled periodically for almost 20 thousand years - from 42 to 25 thousand years ago.

This site was discovered in 1953 and became the seventeenth of the Kostenkovo-Borshchevsky complex opened on the territory.

2025

Unique jewelry found in layer 41-42 thousand years

The work of archaeologists at the Kostyonka site on the 17th season of 2025 was carried out with the support of the History of the Fatherland Foundation and was concentrated on the oldest, lowest cultural layer, the age of which reliably dates back 41-42 thousand years. This period is associated with the initial settlement of a modern-type person through the territory of the East European Plain.

"This year we managed to open an extremely interesting area - we got into the side of the ancient ravine and the channel of the paleoruche, which is not fixed on the modern surface. People developed the territory next to this watercourse, and the finds from their parking lot partially washed to the bottom of the stream, which provided them with good safety. It was there that we discovered the most expressive material, including the largest objects, "said Alexander^[2], senior researcher at the Paleolithic Department of the IIMK RAS^[3].

During the excavations, which reached a depth of nine meters from the surface, archaeologists collected several thousand individual finds. Stone inventory, including flint tools, blanks and production waste, is estimated at thousands of copies. Among the unusual finds, a diverse series of jewelry stands out, characteristic of a unique archaeological culture that has no direct analogies in the world.

The collection was replenished with several pendants made of arctic fox canines - a typical decoration for the inhabitants of this parking lot. Moreover, these fangs were drilled, which is one of the earliest evidence of drilling techniques in the Stone Age.

Fox fangs with traces of drilling/ © Alexander Bessudnov, press service of IIMK RAS

Of particular interest is a new find for the monument - a pendant from the shell of an extinct cephalopod orthoceras mollusk measuring about five centimeters. Preliminary analysis suggests that the shell may have been deliberately stained with red ochre. Archaeologists suggest that the suspension could be worn around the neck, hanging from a rope made of plants or animal lives. Another version - the decoration was attached to clothes.

Another rare find was the so-called tusk nucleus, a fragment of a mammoth tusk that was used as the basis for removing blanks from which tools and jewelry could subsequently be made. Such artifacts in Kostenki are known in single copies. Near the nucleus, a cluster of bone flakes was recorded, some of which probably served as blanks for tools.

Among the products from the tusk, a fragment of a tusk tip stands out, analogies to which are known at the neighboring site of Kostenka-14, where a fragment of such a tip was found stuck in a mammoth rib.

"The people who left this cultural layer had unique skills in making stone and bone tools, and also had an inexplicable need for the production of a variety of jewelry. We do not know the complete analogues of the collection of the II cultural layer of Kostenok-17 either in Kostenki or beyond. A rich set of decorations is a large field for interpretations and further research, "explained Alexander Bessudnov.

In addition to jewelry and tools, a large number of bone remains were found in the cultural layer, indicating that the main objects of hunting were a horse, a small fur beast and, possibly, a mammoth.

Paleogeographers reconstructed the formation of ancient deposits at the site in Kostenki 17

In June 2025, it became known that paleogeographers described the structure of slope deposits on the territory of the archaeological site Kostenki 17, in the thickness of which there are ancient soils and layers with finds of animal bones and tools of hunters-collectors of the Upper Paleolithic era.

The results made it possible to clarify the living conditions of the ancient people who inhabited Kostenki in the period 42-30 thousand years ago, as well as to assess the impact of climate and human activity on the processes of formation of paleopoches. The findings will help archaeologists more accurately interpret cultural layers and understand how natural processes affected the preservation of ancient artifacts. The results of the study, supported by a grant from the Russian Science Foundation (RNF), were published in the journal Catena.

Until now, questions remain debated about how sediments were formed, where cultural layers and soils were preserved. At the same time, it is important to know about the peculiarities of soil formation in antiquity in order to correctly date and describe finds. So, for example, due to freezing and thawing of the soil, archaeological artifacts could shift, and if these processes are not taken into account, then the chronological binding will be incorrect. In addition, the study of soil formation processes makes it possible to better understand the local climatic and landscape conditions in which ancient hunter-gatherers lived.

Scientists from the Moscow City Branch of the All-Russian Public Organization "Russian Geographical Society" (Moscow), the Institute of Geography of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Moscow) and colleagues during archaeological excavations traced how deposits and ancient soils formed on the territory of the Kostenka-17 site.

Scientists investigated the change in the structure of the soil-sedimentary stratum along the slope using a series of wells, pits (vertical "sections" of the soil in depth) and archaeological excavations. The authors studied the deposits in the walls of the main excavation, which has a depth of 6.7 meters, using a set of methods: assessing the morphology and micromorphology of paleopoeia, the composition and content of chemical elements, particle sizes, the content of organic carbon and calcium carbonate, as well as determining the color of the sediment and magnetic susceptibility of the samples.

As a result, the authors divided the studied section into five layers, each of which corresponded to a certain stage of sediment formation.

The uppermost layer, represented by chernozem, began to form about 10 thousand years ago in relatively stable warm climatic conditions. Below are two underdeveloped paleozoans dating from 32-29 thousand years ago. In these layers, paleogeographers found traces of multiple planar flushing.

The next layer - the so-called upper humus column - dating from 36-32 thousand years old, contained numerous traces of human activity: coal particles, stone tools and jewelry, which in some places were shifted down the slope due to the slow movement of freezing soils. This layer turned out to be not ordinary natural soil, but the result of a complex interaction of natural and anthropogenic factors. On the one hand, the dark color of the soils indicates favorable warm conditions, on the other hand, abundant particles of coal indicate the intensive use of fire by the ancient inhabitants of the site. In this layer, the authors found traces of cryogenic processes, that is, freezing of deposits. These are evidence of permafrost in the region under study in the past, which explains why cultural layers are displaced in places - they moved along with freezing and thawing deposits.

Below, scientists have identified a thin horizon with volcanic ash (tephra) about 40 thousand years old. Archaeologists find such a layer at many ancient sites in Europe, since it was formed as a result of the super-eruption of the Phlegrean Fields volcano (the territory of modern Italy), the ash from which was spread through the air by several thousand kilometers.

The most ancient deposits, formed 42-40 thousand years ago, demonstrated pronounced stratification, indicating active processes of soil washing from the overlying areas of the slope to the underlying as a result of the formation of water flows along the slope. The authors identified here alternating sand and clay layers and areas with washouts. These natural processes could slightly "shift" ancient artifacts from their original location, which is important to consider when studying a given archaeological site.

"Our study shows that the deposits of the Kostenka-17 site are a complex data archive from which you can learn a lot about the living conditions of ancient people in the territory under study. Paleosocial studies also help to better understand the mechanisms of formation of cultural layers of archaeological sites, to assess the likelihood of displacement or redeposition of finds. In the future, we plan to study the Upper Humus Column in more detail, namely, to analyze coals and analyze biomarkers in order to better understand the influence of humans on soil formation in the past, "said Fatima Kurbanova, candidate of biological sciences, researcher at the Moscow City Branch of the All-Russian Public Organization" Russian Geographical Society, "researcher at the Institute of Geography of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

The study was attended by employees of the V.V. Dokuchaev Soil Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Moscow), the Institute of the History of Material Culture of the Russian Academy of Sciences (St. Petersburg), Moscow State University named after M.V. Lomonosov (Moscow), the Institute of Volcanology and Seismology of the Far Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky) and the Helmholtz Center for Oceanic Research (Germany ).

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