Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia 51 (3) 2023   doi:10.17746/1563-0110.2023.51.3.025-031

Annotation:  A.P. Derevianko’s Multivolume Three Global Human Migrations in Eurasia and Its Place in Paleolithic Core-Shaped Tools from the Early Pleistocene Deposits at Bairaki, Moldova Early-Middle Acheulean Occupation of the Northern Transcaucasian Highland Nikolaevo-Otradnoye II—A New Early and Middle Paleolithic Site in the Northeastern Azov Region On the Attribution of Lithic Industry from the Early Paleolithic Site of Bogatyri/Sinyaya Balka, the Gazma Cave—A Final Middle Paleolithic Site in Azerbaijan: Paleogeography, Chronology, Archaeology Variability in the Sibiryachikha Assemblages of the Altai Mountains (Based on Materials from Okladni Spatial Structures of the Initial/Early Upper Paleolithic at Tolbor-21, Northern Mongolia A Complex of Stratifi ed Upper Paleolithic Sites in the Foothills of the Northern Tien Shan: General Late Pleistocene Environments of East Kazakhstan (Based on Ushbulak Site Materials) A New Type of IUP Settlement in the Selenga River Basin, Northern Mongolia: The Kharganyn Gol-13 Sho Morpho-Stratigraphy, Sedimentology, and Radiocarbon Chronology of Suyanggae Sites, Focusing on Loc. Khengerekte-Sukhotino—An Upper Paleolithic Culture in Transbaikalia Late Pleistocene to Early Holocene Paleoclimatic Boundaries and Human Settlement of the East Siberia Late Upper Paleolithic of the South Minusinsk Basin and its Mountain Surroundings: Research Results Ɖiem Cave: A Stratified Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene Site in Northern Vietnam A Case of Systemic Connective Tissue Disorder in a Pazyryk Male from the Altai Mountains   

Nikolaevo-Otradnoye II—
A New Early and Middle Paleolithic Site
in the Northeastern Azov Region

A.V. Kolesnik¹, Y.N. Zorov², A.Y. Danilchenko³, V.V. Titov⁴, E.A. Konstantinov⁵, P.D. Frolov⁶, and N.V. Sychev⁵

¹Donetsk State University, Universitetskaya 24, Donetsk, 283001, Russia

²State Autonomous Institution of Culture of the Rostov Region “Donskoe Nasledie”, Nizhnebulvarnaya 29, Rostov-on-Don, 344022, Russia

³Kamensk Museum of Decorative, Applied and Folk Art, Pr. Karla Marksa 56, Kamensk-Shakhtinsky, 347800, Russia

⁴Southern Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Pr. Chekhova 41, Rostov-on-Don, 344006, Russia

⁵Institute of Geography, Russian Academy of Sciences, Staromonetnyi per. 29, bldg. 4, Moscow, 119017, Russia

⁶Geological Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, Pyzhevsky per. 7, bldg. 1, Moscow, 119017, Russia

We describe materials from a new Paleolithic site, discovered in 2020 on the right bank of Mius estuary, near its confluence with the Taganrog Bay of the Sea of Azov, in the southern outskirts of the village of Nikolaevo-Otradnoye, which is in the Neklinovksky District of the Rostov Region. The clearing of a 10-meter-high river-bluff revealed a complex stratigraphy of subaqueous and subaerial Late and Middle Pleistocene rocks. Horizons with lithics and faunal remains were identified. Cultural remains found in the coastal exposure and in the stratigraphic section belong to the Early and Middle Paleolithic. The early stage in the peopling of the Northeastern Azov and the Lower Don regions is documented by Early Paleolithic artifacts found in the subaqueous deposits of layers 5 and 6 (MIS 9-11, ~420-270 ka BP). Heavily waterworn patinated lithics include a core-shaped artifact, various types of side-scrapers, a scaled piece, flakes, and chips. This complex is an informative addition to known complexes from the region, including contemporaneous ones. The most interesting is the Middle Paleolithic industry of layer 4 under the Kamenka (?) soil— layer 3, MIS 7. The toolkit consists of a diagonal side-scraper and a chip found in the section, as well as radial and Levallois cores, various side-scrapers, a partly bifacial tool, spalls, and chips found in the denudation. Technological and typological criteria (primarily the Levallois technology) and the tentative date of non-waterworn patinated lithics make it possible to attribute them to the Early Middle Paleolithic of the southern Russian Plain. It is concluded that cultural remains of the Early Middle Paleolithic, dating to ~243-191 ka BP, have been found in the region for the first time, filling the gap in the local Early Middle Paleolithic sequence. In adjacent regions, similar industries have been known since the late 1900s.

Keywords: Northeastern Azov region, Early and Middle Paleolithic, Mius estuary, early peopling of Eastern Europe, Middle Paleolithic humans, stone tools