New geoarcheological studies at the Middle Paleolithic sites of Khotylevo I and Betovo (Bryansk oblast, Russia): Some preliminary results

Abstract The paper presents and discusses the evidence obtained as a result of recent fieldwork at the Middle Paleolithic sites of Khotylevo 1 and Betovo in the Upper Desna river basin, Bryansk oblast of Russia. The stone industries of both sites are based on local tabular good quality flint and contain more (Khotylevo 1) or less (Betovo) representative bifacial components, as well as varying quantities of Levallois products. Previously, all the Middle Paleolithic assemblages of Khotylevo 1 were thought to occur in a redeposited alluvial context dated by different authors to either early Late or even late Middle Pleistocene. The materials of Betovo were thought (mainly on typological grounds) to postdate those of Khotylevo 1. The new stratigraphic observations, supplemented with the results of sedimentological analyses, show that Khotylevo 1 is a multilayered site with some cultural horizons displaying few or no signs of post-depositional dislocation. Coupled with the results of paleomagnetic studies and a radiocarbon date, this data seems to suggest that the formation of the deposits enclosing the known Middle Paleolithic assemblages at both sites might have taken place during the first half of the Middle Valdai megainterstadial (MIS 3).