Kostënki 17 (Spitsynskaya) and Kostënki 6 (Streletskaya): recent fieldwork and new 14C dates

Archaeological layers at Kostënki 6 and Kostënki 17 have yielded some of the oldest Upper Palaeolithic material on the East European Plain. Major excavations at both sites were undertaken in the early 1950s, and there are outstanding questions concerning their stratigraphies. Here we summarise recent excavation of both sites and present new radiocarbon dates for material from this work. 2017-2019 excavation of Kostënki 17 confirms its well-stratified sequence, although the upper section shows a greater complexity than was noted during earlier work. Our new 14C date for the stratigraphically higher Layer I helps to bracket its age in the range 34.3-29 ka BP. The heavily redeposited nature of Kostënki 6’s archaeological layer is verified by a small-scale 2017 excavation. Our new 14C date is, however, consistent with the layer’s recorded position underneath the CI tephra. This 14C date therefore supports an age of >34.3 ka BP for Kostënki 6’s archaeological material.