Степная природно-хозяйственная область Восточной Европы в позднем палеолите
Steppe Natural-Economic Area of East Europe in the Upper Palaeolithic

Summary/Abstract: This article is devoted to the problems associated with the study of the steppe natural-economic area (SNEA) of the Upper Palaeolithic of East Europe. The author starts with a detailed historiographical review. After that and on the basis of the evidence obtained at the principal sites of the area (Amvrosievka, Anetovka II, Bolshaya Akkarzha, Kamennaya Balka I—III, Muralovka, Zolotovka I and others), he builds a scheme of the annual economic cycle of the SNEA. It supposed that the cycle had a well pronounced seasonal character, caused by animal migrations. Different types of seasonal camps can be distinguished, namerly: spring-summer; fall-winter and winter ones. During the main period of the SNEA existence (about 22—13 kya), collective seasonal bison drive hunting was the main strategy in the spring-summer season, when the ancient collectives consolidated. In fall and winter both bisons and other animals (horse, caribou, etc.) were mainly procured by individual hunters. These conclusions are illustrated by ethnographical parallels with the way of life and subsistence strategies of American Indians from the Southern and Central Great Plains. At the final stage of the Upper Palaeolithic SNEA existence (about 13—10 kya) its mammalian fauna underwent substantial changes. While the bison did not disappear completely, it was the horse that became now the main object of hunting.

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