The Large Ash-pit of the Eliseevichi 1 Site: the Archaeological Characteristic of the Feature and Its Position in the Site’s Settlement Structure

The paper analyzes a large settlement feature in the form of a large hearth lens which is 85 sq. m in area (‘the large ash-pit’) discovered by K. M. Polikarpovich at the Eliseevichi 1 site, Zhiryatino district, Bryansk region, Russia. This is one of the sites dating to the late Upper Paleolithic in the Upper and Middle Dnieper region where structures made of mammoth bones have been recorded. The site has been almost completely excavated. The aim of the study was to determine the position of the ash-pit in the settlement structure as well as search analogies to this feature among the ash-pits discovered at the Upper Paleolithic sites in the center of the Russian Plain. It was found that one of the piles of mammoth bones and skulls at Eliseevichi 1 was a dwelling of the Anosovo- Mein type. Together with the ash-pit and two large pits, this pile of mammoth bones formed a single work and domestic activity zone similar to the zones examined at Yudinovo, Mezin and Mezhirichi. The analysis revealed that the Eliseevichi ash-pit shares significant similarities with the ash-pit from the work and domestic activity zone of dwelling no. 5 at the Yudinovo site. It should be noted that this type of the settlement structure is typical for the sites dating to the late Upper Paleolithic in the Upper and Middle Dnieper region attributed to different archaeological cultures. It serves as an important marker characterizing the layer of the sites that existed in this region in the chronological range from 14 500 to 13 000 years ago.