Fossil molluscan shells and polychaeta tubes from the Yudinovo and Eliseevichi Upper Paleolithic settlements of: taxonomy, possibilities of palaeogeographical and archaeological reconstructions

In the article we presents the results of the study of the mollusks and polychaetes remains collected during more than 80 years of excavations of the Yudinovo and Eliseevichi 1 Upper Paleolithic settlements (Dnieper region). The Yudinovo and Eliseevichi 1 sites, located on the right bank of the Sudost’ River 45 km from each other are two large settlements with mammoth bone dwellings. The sites belonging to different cultural traditions have been excavated over a large area. The analysis of 238 fossil invertebrate samples revealed the presence of mollusks shells from 33 genera and calcareous tubes of at least 1 genus of polychaete worms. Overall 26 taxa have been reliably determined at the species level. Among them are representatives of marine, brackish-water, freshwater and terrestrial animals — mainly gastropods (20 species), less frequently bivalves (5 species) mollusks, and one species of polychaetes. The shells of non local genera used by the Yudinovos settlement inhabitants as decoration include Nucula, Cerastoderma, Steromphala, Tritia, Cerithium and Melarhaphe. These shells were most likely brought to the settlement from the northwestern coast of Black Sea. The material from the Eliseevichi 1 settlement consists mainly of processed fragments of calcareous polychaet’s tubes, most likely originating from Cretaceous deposits in the Podeseniye region. The Eliseevichi shell set differs sharply from the Yudinovo one consisting of isolated shells of Theodoxus fluviatilis, whose origin is difficult to determine. They could be either collected in nearby rivers contemporary to this settlement and or they could be associated with culturally and temporally different horizon of the cultural layer of the Eliseevichi 1 settlement.