References

gesj

GEOGRAPHY, ENVIRONMENT, SUSTAINABILITY

2071-93882542-1565

Russian Geographical Society

10.24057/2071-9388-2021-124

gesj-2330

Research Article

RESEARCH PAPER

The Palaeoenvironment Of the Central Russian Plain During the End Of the Valdai Glaciation Based on Small Mammal Data From the Late Palaeolithic Site Byki 7 (Seim R. Basin)

Markova

Anastasia K.

Moscow, 119017

amarkova@list.ru

Puzachenko

Andrey Yu.

Moscow, 119017

Institute of Geography, Russian Academy of ScienceRussian Federation

2022

28032022

151102111

2022

Markova A.K., Puzachenko A.Y.

Данная работа распространяется под лицензией Creative Commons Attribution 4.0.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://ges.rgo.ru/jour/article/view/2330

The analysis of the Late Pleistocene small mammals’ faunas from the three cultural layers of the Late Palaeolithic site Byki 7 (the Seim River basin) consist of a combination of steppe and tundra species. Steppe species definitely prevail and include Ochotona pusilla, Marmota bobac, Spermophilus sp., Spalax microphthalmus, Ellobius talpinus, Lagurus lagurus and Lasiopodomys (Stenocranius) gregalis. Tundra species (collared lemming and Siberian lemming) are only represented by a small amount of remains. The lack of forest dwellers in the Byki 7 small mammal assemblage indicates of the absence of a continuous forest zone on the Central Russian Plain during the end of the Valdai glaciation. The Eurasian geographical distribution of the Rodentia and Lagomorpha species represented in the Byki–7 assemblages, have been reconstructed for the period of deposition of the site. Radiocarbon dates indicate that the multilayer Late Palaeolithic Byki 7 site correlates with the second part of the Valdai Glaciation Maximum cooling (LGM) (22–17 ka BP). Based on the small mammal data the former palaeoenvironmental conditions of the non-analogue periglacial tundra-steppe are reconstructed.

Late Palaeolithicsmall mammalsspecies compositionpalaeoenvironment reconstructionSeim River basinperiglacial tundra-steppe

We express our gratitude to N.B. Akhmetgaleeva, the archaeologist, who investigated the Palaeolithic site for many years, for the opportunity to study the small mammalian assemblages of the Byki 7 site. We highly appreciated the useful comments of the reviewers of an earlier draft of this paper. We are very grateful to Prof. Thijs van Kolfschoten (Leiden University, the Netherlands) for his important advices and great help with edition and correction of English text. The paper was written within the framework of the theme of the Institute of Geography, Russian Academy of Sciences no. 0148-2019-0007 (АААА-А19-119021990093-8) «Assessment of Physical-Geographical, Hydrological and Biotic Environmental Changes and their Consequences for Establishing the Basis of Sustainable Nature management»

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The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest present.