Kurchatov Museum of Local Lore, 12 Molodezhnaya St., Kurchatov, Kursk oblast, 307251, Russia [achmetga@mail.ru]
Institute of Geography RAS, 29 (bld. 4) Staromonetniy Lane, Moscow, 119017, Russia [a.v.panin@yandex.ru]
Institute for the History of Material Culture RAS, 18 Dvortsovaya emb., St. Petersburg, 191181, Russia [ikb@mail.ru]
A. N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology, and Evolution RAS, 33 Leninsky Av., Moscow, 119071, Russia [nprilepskaya@gmail.com]
Abstract. The Byki archaeological culture is an important phenomenon, and its accurate chronological placement is crucial for our understanding of cultural dynamics in the Upper Paleolithic of the Russian Plain. This study aims to reevaluate the duration of the Byki culture by analyzing new complex dating data. The available array of dates obtained from various laboratories suggests that the main cultural layers of the Byki sites accumulated between 22 and 18 thousand years before present (ka BP). Recent 14C AMS dates have revealed minimal differences between the dwelling objects of the Byki sites, potentially ranging from a few years
to decades. To determine the duration of the Byki culture, this paper employs archaeological, stratigraphic, and zooarchaeological methods, providing an objective and comprehensive analysis of the latest complex dating evidence.
Keywords: Upper Paleolithic, Seim river basin, sites of Byki, radiocarbon dating, accelerated mass-spectrometry (AMS), optically
stimulated luminescence (OSL), stratigraphy, zooarchaeology.
Received 01.05.2024, accepted 20.05.2024
For citation: Akhmetgaleeva N. B., Panin A. V., Burova N. D., Shasherina L. V., Bricheva S. S., Prilepskaya N. E. Revisiting the duration of the Byki archaeological culture: Insights from new results of complex dating. Prehistoric Archaeology. Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies. 2024 (2), 14–40 (in Russ.). DOI: 10.31600/2658-3925-2024-2-14-40
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