i6 2 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES 



South Russian plain, the caves of the Crimea, the caves of Transcaucasia, 

 and the open-air stations of southern Siberia. 



In the South Russian plain it has been possible to work out a probable 

 succession of blade industries, though this is not yet confirmed at all 

 points by stratigraphical evidence. The earliest group includes sites 

 contained in loess or loess-like deposits lying either on the middle terraces 

 of rivers, or on the slope of ravines, all of which date from a time before 

 the laying down of the lower terrace deposits. Typologically these 

 stations fall into two divisions, the first characterised by an industry of 

 Willendorf type with shouldered points, and the second by a rather 

 generalised Upper Aurignacian, with small blunted-back blades, round 

 scrapers and angle-burins. The first division, which Russian workers 

 consider the earlier of the two, includes such important stations as 

 Kostenki I, Gagarino and Borshevo I, all on the upper reaches of the 

 Don, and Berdysh in the Dnieper basin. We have already seen that a 

 female statuette in mammoth ivory was found in this level at Kostenki I, 

 and to this may now be added seven figurines of the same type from 

 Gagarino, one of which bears a very close resemblance to the Venus of 

 Willendorf. Associated with these were a number of points, needles 

 and pendants in bone and ivory. The identity of this culture with that 

 of Willendorf, Vistonice and Grimaldi is fully recognised by Zamiatnin, 

 Efimenko and other Russian workers. 



The second division includes Timonovka and Suponevo, on the Desna, 

 and the well-known station of Mezin. Although the shouldered point 

 is absent at this stage, the predominance of angle-burins and above' all 

 the geometric decorations on mammoth ivory of Mezin and Timonovka 

 provide a link with Predmost, while the highly conventionalised objects 

 from Mezin interpreted by Breuil as female statuettes represent the last 

 stage of degeneration from the more naturalistic figures of Kostenki and 

 Gagarino. 



The next stage in the South Russian succession is represented by the 

 stations of Kostenki II, III and IV, which have yielded a rather rough 

 industry characterised by a very high proportion of polyhedric burins, 

 associated with abundant remains of mammoth. I have not seen any 

 drawings of this industry, but the description given by Efimenko suggests 

 a possible analogy with the latest Aurignacian level in Palestine, to be 

 described presently. 



The final stage of the Upper Palaeolithic sequence in South Russia 

 is represented by the site of Borshevo II, which lies in the deposits of 

 the lower terrace of the Don, and in part below the present level of the 

 river. There are three culture layers, all of which contain an industry 

 characterised by angle-burins, blunted-back blades and small round 

 scrapers. The description and drawings given by Efimenko suggest 

 that this has affinities with the level of Timonovka and Mezin, but the 

 bone industry contains only simple points, awls and needles, without 

 decoration. The lowest level of Borshevo II contained mammoth bones 

 in abundance, but these became rarer in the middle stage and disappeared 

 entirely in the most recent level, which Efimenko places at the beginning 

 of the Mesolithic. The industry of this level, while remaining essentially 



