Neporotovo 7
Neporotovo 7 as seen from the reservoir lake during our excavation.
Neporotovo 7 is a Middle Palaeolithic site with more than six archaeological horizons. It was discovered in 2012 during our survey and we have conducted first test-excavations in 2013. Between 2014 and 2016 we carried out larger excavations of some of the archaeological horizons. The lithic collections include a Levallois component. At least one of the horizons shows similarities to the Middle Palaeolithic horizons of the famous site Molodova V. Faunal remains are only preserved in the lower horizons and include Bos/Bison remains.
Neporotovo 7 during excavation in 2014.
Stephane Pirson studying a section at Neporotovo 7.
For geological fieldwork we cleaned extended sections along the shoreline to document the lateral variability of the loess-paleosol deposits. We documented several sections, studied the stratigraphy and sedimentary dynamics, and collected samples for environmental reconstruction (pollen and soil micromorphology analyses) and dating (radiocarbon and OSL analyses).
This project is a collaboration with Larissa Kulakovska (Museum of Archaeology, Institute of Archaeology, Ukrainian Academy of Sciences). Further partners are: Vitaly Usik (Museum of Archaeology, Institute of Archaeology, Ukrainian Academy of Sciences), Paul Haesaerts (Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences), Stephane Prison (Awap), Freddy Damblon (Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences), and Natasha Gerasimenko (University of Kyiv).
All images © by Philip R. Nigst, unless otherwise stated.