Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia 40 (1) 2012

Annotation:  Bairaki – a Lower Paleolithic Site on the Lower Dniester The Denticulate Mousterian as a Supposedly Distinct Facies in Western Central Asia Non-utilitarian Lithic Objects from the European Paleolithic Decorated Birch-Bark Artifacts from Section VI of the Gorbunovsky Peat-Bog An Alakul Funeral and Ritual Site in the Eastern Orenburg Region Medieval Amulet Illustrating the Divine Horseman Myth, Rozhdestveno, Perm Territory Face Images in Lower Angara Rock Art Boats in the Rock Art of Kanozero and Northern Europe New Data on Bronze Age Jewelry in the Southeastern Urals The Old Russian Male Funerary Attire (Based on Finds from the 10th–11th Century Burial Mounds at Goc Investigation of Wooden Burial Structures in the Process of Archaeological Excavations A Contribution to the Study of the Eastern Links of the Bronze Age Culture of the Northern Middle Vo Secular Imagery in the Islamic Space of Medieval Zirikhgeran Stone Statue of Ailyan, Gorny Altai Jurchen Pendants of the Netsuke Type Elements of Religious Ritualism in Popular Medicine among the Izhma Komi of the Lower Ob Region Early Metal Age Crania from Bolshoy Oleniy Island, Barents Sea   

Bairaki – a Lower Paleolithic Site on the Lower Dniester

N.K. Anisyutkin, S.I. Kovalenko, V.A. Burlacu, A.K. Ocherednoi, and A.L. Chepalyga.

Findings of excavations at a Lower Paleolithic site, discovered in 2010 near Dubasari on the Lower Dniester, are described. Earlier, two sites with Lower Paleolithic fl int tools – Dubasari-1 (Bolshoi Fontan) and Pogrebya – were found nearby. The cultural layer, located in the top of the lower buried soil overlying the alluvial deposits of the sixth or seventh terrace of the Dniester, included a few stone artifacts and a fragment of an animal bone. The likely age of this buried soil is estimated at ca 500 ka by geological methods. In the alluvium gravel of the same terrace downstream, three pebble tools including two choppers made of a strong Cosăuţi sandstone, and four fl int pieces were found. Geological observations suggest that this alluvium is more than 800 ka old. So far these are the earliest stone tools discovered in a stratifi ed context in the Russian, Moldavian, and Ukrainian parts of the Russian Plain.

Keywords: Lower Pleistocene, Lower Paleolithic, cultural layer, Lower Dniester valley, southwestern Eastern Europe.