Institute for the History of Material Culture RAS
Pervobytnaia arkheologiia. Zhurnal mezhdistsiplinarnykh issledovanii
Prehistoric Archaeology. Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies
Pervobytnaia arkheologiia. Zhurnal mezhdistsiplinarnykh issledovanii
Prehistoric Archaeology. Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies

Bessudnov A. N., Bessudnov A. A. Gagarino site: the history of discovery, study and modern interpretations

Download

Lipetsk State Pedagogical P. Semenov-Tyan-Shansky University, 42 Lenin st., Lipetsk, 398020, Russia [bessudnov_an@mail.ru]

Institute for the History of Material Culture RAS, 18 Dvortsovaya emb., St. Petersburg, 191181, Russia [bessudnov_a22@mail.ru]

 

Abstract. The article provides an overview of the research history of the famous Gagarino Upper Paleolithic site and summarizes the various points of view on the interpretation of its materials. Based on published literature, the year of the site’s discovery should be considered 1924, not 1925 as previously thought. Despite fieldwork ending over 50 years ago, interest in Gagarino materials remains strong, as evidenced by numerous publications on both specific issues of the Eastern Gravettian and broader theoretical topics such as the origin and development of art and dwelling constructions.

 

Keywords: Gagarino site, Upper Paleolithic, research history, Gravettian, dwellings, anthropomorphic sculpture.

 

Received 20.11.2025, accepted 28.11.2025

 

DOI: 10.31600/2658-3925-2025-2-60-74

For citation: Bessudnov A. N., Bessudnov A. A. Gagarino site: the history of discovery, study and modern interpretations (in Russ.). Prehistoric Archaeology. Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies. 2025 (2), 60–74. DOI: 10.31600/2658-3925-2025-2-60-74

 

References

Abramova Z. A. 1966. Izobrazhenie cheloveka v paleoliticheskom iskusstve Evrazii [Image of man in the Paleolithic art of Eurasia]. Moscow-Leningrad: “Nauka” Publ. (in Russian).

Amirhanov H. A. 1998. Vostochnyj gravett ili gravettoidnye industrii Central’noj i Vostochnoj Evropy? [Eastern Gravett or Gravettoid industries of East Europe?]. In: Amirhanov H. A. (ed.). Vostochnyj gravett [Eastern Gravett]. Moscow: “Nauchnyj mir” Publ., 15–34 (in Russian).

Anikovich M. V. 1998. Dnepro-Donskaya istoriko-kul’turnaya oblast’ ohotnikov na mamontov: оt “vostochnogo gravetta” k “vostochnomu epigravettu” [Dnieper-Donets cultural-historical area of mammoth hunters: from “Eastern Gravett” to Eastern Epigravett]. In: Amirhanov H. A. (ed.). Vostochnyj gravett [Eastern Gravett]. Moscow: “Nauchnyj mir” Publ., 35–66 (in Russian).

Anikovich M. V., Lisitsyn S. N., Platonova N. I., Popov V. V., Dudin A. E., Fedyunin I. V. 2019. Chelovek i mamont v paleolite Evropy. Chast’ II. Dnepro-Donskaya istoriko-kul’turnaya

oblast’ [Man and mammoth in the Paleolithic of Europe. Part II. Dnieper-Donets cultural-historical area]. St. Petersburg: Institute for the History of Material Culture RAS (in Russian).

Baskova V. A. 2017. Orudiya iz kosti i bivnya verhnepaleoliticheskoj stoyanki Gagarino [Bone and ivory tools from the Upper Paleolithic site of Gagarino]. Verhnedonskoj arheologicheskij sbornik 9, 11–14 (in Russian).

Baskova V. A. 2018. Novye bivnevye predmety iz faunisticheskoj kollekcii stoyanki Gagarino (po materialam GIM) [New ivory objects from the faunal collection of the Gagarino site]. In: Bessudnov A. A., Tkach E. S. (eds.). Aktual’naya arheologiya 4. Kompleksnye issledovaniya v arheologii. St. Petersburg: Institute for the History of Material Culture RAS, 78–80 (in Russian).

Bessudnov A. N. 2025. Vserossijskaya nauchnaya konferenciya “Paleolit Vostochnoj Evropy: kul’tura, hronologiya, interpretacii” [All-Russia scientific conference “Paleolithic of East Europe”]. Arhаeologicheskie vesti 46, 233–235 (in Russian).

Boriskovskij P. I. 1963. Ocherki po paleolitu bassejna Dona. Maloizuchennye poseleniya drevnego kamennogo veka v Kostyonkah [Essays on the Paleolithic of the Don basin [Underinvestigated Old Stone Age sites in Kostenki]. Moscow-Leningrad: USSR Academy of Science Press (in Russian).

Dinnis R., Bessudnov A. A., Reynolds N., Khlopachev G. A., Sablin M., Sinitsyn A., Higham T., Douka K. 2021. The tempo of cultural change in the Kostenki Upper Paleolithic: further insights. Radiocarbon 63, 785–803.

Es’kova D. K. 2015. Tekhnologiya rasshchepleniya kamnya na stoyankah vostochnogo gravetta Russkoj ravniny [Stone knapping technology of the Eastern Gravettian sites of the Russian Plain]. Ph. D. dissertation abstract. Moscow (in Russian).

Efimenko P. P. 1926. Statuetka solyutrejskogo vremeni s beregov Dona [Solutrean time statuette from the banks of the Don]. Materialy po etnografii III (I), 139–142 (in Russian).

Efimenko P. P. 1953. Pervobytnoe obshchestvo [Prehistoric society]. 3rd ed. Kiev: UkrSSR Academy of Science Press (in Russian).

Formozov A. A. 1959. Etnokul’turnye oblasti na territorii evropejskoj chasti SSSR v kamennom veke [Ethnocultural areas on the European part of the USSR in the Stone Age]. Moscow: USSR Academy of Science Press.

Gavrilov K. N. 2016. Verhnij paleolit bassejna Desny. Preemstvennost’ i variabel’nost’ v razvitii material’noj kul’tury [Upper Paleolithic of the Desna basin. Continuity and variability in the development of material culture]. Moscow-St. Petersburg: “Nestor-Istoriya” Publ. (in Russian).

Grishchenko M. N. 1976. Plejstocen i golocen bassejna Verhnego Dona [Pleistocene and Holocene of the Upper Don basin]. Moscow: “Nauka” Publ. (in Russian).

Gvozdover M. D. 1958. Avdeevskaya stoyanka i ee mesto sredi drugih pamyatnikov pozdnego paleolita [Avdeevo site and its place among the other Late Paleolithic sites]. Ph. D. dissertation abstract. Moscow (in Russian).

Izvestiya Tambovskogo obshchestva izucheniya prirody i kul’tury mestnogo kraya [Bulletin of the Tambov Society for the Study of Local Nature and Culture]. Tambov, 1925. № 1 (in Russian).

Khlopachev G. A. 2006. Bivnevye industrii verhnego paleolita Vostochnoj Evropy [Ivory industries of the Upper Paleolithic of East Europe]. St. Petersburg: “Nauka” Publ. (in Russian).

Kozlowski J. K. 1986. The gravettian in Central and Eastern Europe. Advances in World Archaeology 5, 131–200.

Lisitsyn S. N. 2019. The Eastern Frontier of the Gravettian in the Kostenki-Borshchevo Palaeolithic Locality, the Don Basin, Russia. Vestnik of St. Petersburg University. History 64, 525–554.

Lisitsyn S. N., Dudin A. E. 2019. Gravett/epigravett v Kostyonkovsko-Borshchyovskom rajone na Donu: kriterii razdeleniya, kul’turnaya interpretaciya i periodizaciya [Gravett/epigravett in the Kostenki-Borshchevo area on the Don: criteria of differentiation, cultural interpretation and periodization]. Camera praehistorica 1 (2), 70–106 (in Russian).

Reynolds N., Germonpre M., Bessudnov A. A., Sablin M. V. 2019. The Late Gravettian site of Kostёnki 21 Layer III, Russia: a chronocultural reassessment based on a new interpretation of the significance of intra-site spatial patterning. Journal of Paleolithic Archaeology 2, 160–210.

Rogachev A. N. 1955. Dnevnik paleoliticheskoj ekspedicii 1955 goda [1955 field diary of the Paleolithic expedition]. (Scholarly archive of IHMC RAS. F. 35. Op. 1. 1955. D. 110) (in Russian).

Rogachev A. N., Anikovich M. V. 1984. Pozdnij paleolit Russkoj ravniny i Kryma [Late Paleolithic of the Russian Plain]. In: Boriskovskij P. I. (ed.). Paleolit SSSR. Moscow: “Nauka” Publ., 162–271 (in Russian).

Rukina N. S. 2024. Mesto Gagarinskoj stoyanki v probleme izucheniya zhilishch verh-nego paleolita [Place of Gagarino site in the problem of the study of Upper Paleolithic dwellings]. Verhnedonskoj arheologicheskij sbornik 13, 12–15 (in Russian).

Sergin V. Ya. 1998. Zhilishcha na pamyatnikah vostochnogo gravetta Russkoj ravniny [Dwellings at the Eastern Gravettian sites of the Russian Plain]. In: Amirhanov H. A. (ed.). Vostochnyj gravett. Moscow: “Nauchnyj mir” Publ., 151–176 (in Russian).

Sinitsyn A. A. 2013. Gravett Kostyonok v kontekste gravetta Vostochnoj Evropy [Gravett of Kostenki in the East European context]. In: Sinicyna G. V. (ed.). Problemy zaseleniya Severo-Zapada Vostochnoj Evropy v verhnem i final’nom paleolite (kul’turnoistoricheskie processy). St. Petersburg: “ElekSis” Publ., 4–32 (in Russian).

Sinitsyn A. A., Praslov N. D., Svezhencev Yu. S., Sulerzhickij L. D. 1997. Radiouglerodnaya hronologiya verhnego paleolita Vostochnoj Evropy [Radiocarbon chronology of the Upper Paleolithic of East Europe]. In: Sinitsyn A. A., Praslov N. D. (eds.). Radiouglerodnaya hronologiya paleolita Vostochnoj Evropy i Severnoj Azii. Problemy i perspektivy [Radiocarbon chronology of the Upper Paleolithic of East Europe and North Asia. Problems and prospects]. St. Petersburg: “AkademPrint” Publ., 21–66 (in Russian).

Tarasov L. M. 1967. Poselenie Gagarino i ego mesto v verhnem paleolite Evropy [The Gagarino site and its place in the Upper Paleolithic of Europe]. Ph. D. dissertation abstract. Leningrad (in Russian).

Tarasov L. M. 1979. Gagarinskaya stoyanka i ee mesto v paleolite Evropy [The Gagarino site and its place in the Paleolithic of Europe]. Leningrad: “Nauka” Publ. (in Russian).

Vasil’ev S. A. 2008. Drevnejshee proshloe chelovechestva: poisk rossijskih uchenyh [Oldest history of the humankind: the research of Russian scholars]. St. Petersburg: Institute for the History of Material Culture RAS (in Russian).

Velichko A. A. 1961. Geologicheskij vozrast verhnego paleolita central’nyh rajonov Russkoj ravniny [Geological Age of the Upper Paleolithic in central parts of the Russian Plain]. Moscow: USSR Academy of Science Press (in Russian).

Zhitenev V. S. 2007. Podveski iz zubov zhivotnyh rannej i srednej epoh verhnego paleolita Russkoj ravniny [Pendants made of animal teeth in the early and middle stages of the Upper Paleolithic of the Russian Plain]. In: Leonova N. B. (ed.). Problemy arheologii kamennogo veka (k yubileyu M. D. Gvozdover) [Problems in archaeology of the Stone Age (Festschrift to the jubilee of M. D. Gvozdover)]. Moscow: “Dom evrejskoj knigi” Publ., 40–61 (in Russian).

Zamyatnin S. N. 1926. Otchet o razvedke paleolita u sela Gagarina Lipeckogo uezda Tambovskoj gub. letom 1926 goda [Report of searching for the Paleolithic near the Gagarino village of Lipetsk district, Tambov region, in the summer of 1926] (Scholarly archive of IHMC RAS. F. 2. Op. 1. 1926. D. 267) (in Russian).

Zamyatnin S. N. 1929. Ekspediciya po izucheniyu kul’tur paleolita v 1927 g. [Expedition for the study of Paleolithic cultures in 1927]. Soobshcheniya GAIMK II, 209–214 (in Russian).

Zamiatnine S. N. 1934. La station aurignacienne de Gagarino et les donnees nouvelles qu’elle fournit sur les rites magiques des chasseurs quaternaries. Bulletin de l’Academie d’Histoire de la Culture Materielle (fasc. 88). Moscow-Leningrad: Les Editions d’Etat.

Zamyatnin S. N. 1935. Raskopki u sela Gagarino (verhov’ya Dona) [Excavations near the village of Gagarino (upper reaches of the Don)]. Izvestiya GAIMK [Communications of the State Academy of the History of Material Culture] 118, 26–77 (in Russian).