Byzozova is an Early Upper Paleolithic site located in the Pechora River basin close to the Arctic Circle in Russia, near a modern village of the same name. Discovered in 1962, Byzozova was excavated several times, most recently in the late 20th century; a suite of calibrated radiocarbon dates suggest that the site was used (perhaps at least twice) around 29,000 BP.
The site is located on the right bank of the Pechora River, exposed on a bluff along the river and covered by ~10 meters of sediments. A total of 300 stone tools and 4,000 animal bones and bone fragments have been recovered from the site to date. The main layer is ~2.5 meter thick, lying on native bedrock sandstone on the floor of an ancient gully. The layer is dominated by animal remains, primarily mammoth bone. Many of the bones show cutmarks, suggesting the animals were butchered. Stone tools in the assemblage include Levallois cores and a variety of bifacial tools such as sidescrapers and knives. Reindeer antler tools were also found, including what has been interpreted as a mattock.
The majority of the raw material used to make the stone tools is from locally-available quartzite. A small percentage are made of a fine-grained flint brought from the Chernyshova Ridge approximately 40-60 kilometers southeast of Byzozova. One significant aspect may be the lack, or near lack of projectile points: almost all of the stone tools are knives and scrapers, leading scholars to argue that the site was where animals were butchered, not hunted.
Animal Bones at Byzozova
A total of 97.5% of the bones collected from Byzozova are of mammoth (extinct elephant), leading some researchers to argue that the bones may have been derived from a mammoth cemetery or accidental deaths of animals over a long period of time, rather than the result of purposeful hunting.
A small percentage of the animal assemblage include woolly rhinoceros, horse, reindeer, musk ox, arctic fox and brown bear.
Dating Byzozova
The age of the site is based on over 20 radiocarbon dates and a series of optically stimulated luminescence dates, correlating with MIS 5 and 6, most falling within a fairly tight range between 25,500 and 30,000 years ago.
Sources
This glossary entry is a part of the About.com guide to Upper Paleolithic, and the Dictionary of Archaeology.
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Pavlov PY. 2008. The Paleolithic of Northeastern Europe: New Data. Archaeology, Ethnology and Anthropology of Eurasia 33(1):33-45.
Svendsen JI, Heggen HP, Hufthammer AK, Mangerud J, Pavlov P, and Roebroeks W. 2010. Geo-archaeological investigations of Palaeolithic sites along the Ural Mountains - On the northern presence of humans during the last Ice Age. Quaternary Science Reviews 29(23-24):3138-3156.
