Provider: Moravian Museum, Brno, Czech Republic

TY  - JOUR
JO  - Anthropologie (Brno)
TI  - The Beginning of the Upper Paleolithic in Transcarpathia, Ukraine
AU  - Monigal K
AU  - Usik VI
AU  - Koulakovskaya L
AU  - Gerasimenko NP
Y1  - 2006
VL  - 44
IS  - 1
PB  - Moravian Museum, Brno, Czech Republic
SN  - 0323-1119
SP  - 61
EP  - 74
KW  - Early Upper Paleolithic
KW  - Aurignacian
KW  - Middle to Upper Paleolithic transition
KW  - Levallois technology
KW  - Blade technology
KW  - Ukraine 
N2  - 
N2  - Forming the crossroad between western and eastern Europe, the Carpathian Mountains support a wealth of natural diversity otherwise unparalleled in Europe and a rich cultural heritage reflecting millennia of human settlement. Yet relatively little is known of the Paleolithic settlement of Transcarpathian Ukraine, despite the vast potential the area holds for prehistoric research. At present, there are three known Early Upper Paleolithic assemblages in Transcarpathia: Korolevo II level II and Korolevo I level Ia, both discovered at the end of the 1970s, and Sokirnitsa IA level 3, discovered in 2000. Korolevo II/II is technologically Upper Paleolithic with blade production and the use of crested blades for the preparation of the core, along with archaic techniques of platform faceting and hard hammer percussion. Typologically, both Middle and Upper Paleolithic tools appear. This assemblage, furthermore, has been demonstrably linked to earlier occupations at Korolevo, suggesting that this was an indigenous transition, a view supported by other transitional assemblages from neighbouring regions. Korolevo I/Ia and Sokirnitsa IA/3, in both technological and typological aspects, show a refinement of lithic reduction strategies and tool manufacture that is fully Upper Paleolithic in character. All three Transcarpathian assemblages are dated ca 39,000 BP and indicate that the beginning of the Upper Paleolithic in this region is connected with OIS 3. In none of the cases do Aurignacian elements appear, suggesting that the tempo and nature of the transition from the Middle Paleolithic to the Upper Paleolithic was different from that of western Europe.
ER  -