Discussion issues of periodisation of the terminal paleolithic and early mesolithic in the Upper Volga basin

The article revises some archaeological data on the transitional period from the Paleolithic to the Mesolithic in the Upper Volga basin. The critical review of five scenarios published by some researchers in regard to cultural interactions during the transition from the final stage of the Pleistocene to the Early Holocene is suggested. All based on the typological issues the scenarios are compared with the earlier environmental perio-disations. The author concludes that cultural transformations at the turn of the Pleistocene/ Holocene in the Upper Volga basin might be explained only in the context of new multilayer sites, stratigraphic columns and new substantive data.