Gravettian site in Halych (Ukraine). Results of Polish-Ukrainian archeological survey

Abstract

The Halych site is located on a cape of a high (4th) terrace on the right bank of Dniester River (fi g. 3). During the survey, the Polish-Ukrainian expedition explored 340 m2. It is a non-defi ned closely fragment of a site largely destroyed by industrial exploitation of loess for the local brick plant (fi g. 2, 3). The relics of Paleolithic settlement appeared on 3 levels, at a depth of 200–230 cm from the surface. They constituted 1st cultural stratum in the lower part of the Rivne type fossil soil (fi g. 5, 6), created during warming and humidizing of the climate, related to the Lascaux interstadial in Western Europe. The oldest of the discovered levels (Ic) has remained in a form of gray spots, single bones and dispersed fl int products (365 specimens). The middle settlement level (Ib) was best preserved and included the largest number of fi nds. It included the hearth no 2, fl int products grouped around it (2132 specimens) and a concentration of more than 800 bones, almost exclusively mammoth ones (fi g. 13). The youngest settlement level (Ia) has remained in a form of hearth No 1, concentration of fl int objects (2199 specimens) and dispersed, single bones (fi g. 14). The inventory from Halych shows close typological links both to the Dniester Molodova culture sets (for instance Molodova V, ex. VII and VIII and Mežygircy I), being a result of spreading of Gravette tradition from Western to Eastern Subcarpathian after 25 kyr. As a result of this process Molodova culture appeared in the area of middle and upper Dniester River. Also typological similarities of mid-European Pavloviene (Pavlov, Dolní Věstonice), should be noted. Considering the radiocarbon and thermoluminescence dating it can be assumed, that the upper cultural stratum from Halych has three phases, and the youngest settlement phase (Ia), should be dated for the period between 19th and 21st millennium BC., the middle phase (Ib), between 23rd and 24th millennium BC, while the oldest (Ic), from 24th to 25 000 years BC. Thus what remains, are relics of a local sequence of Gravettian culture, from the period between 19 to 25 000 years ago. Upper Paleolithic settlement process had three phases there, and the youngest settlement phase can be dated for 19 and 21, 23 and 24 thousand years BC while the oldest for 24 to 25 thousand years BC.