Investigation of the Palaeolithic and Mesolithic sites in the Don basin on the territory of Volgograd region

The locations of the Stone Age on the Volgograd region territory have been known since the beginning of the XIX century. However, purposeful Stone Age sites explorations had only started after the Sukhaya Mechetka site was discovered by A.P. Koptev and M.N. Grischenko in 1951. The data accumulated on series of stratified sites in Volgograd Region makes it possible to outline two significant groups of them. One of the groups belongs to the Lower Volga basin. The other group is associated with the ramified network of gullies and ravines and multiple tributaries of the Don. The Don is the fourth longest river on the Russian Plain; its basin taken in the Volgograd Region is several times larger than the Volga basin taken in the area. The relatively flat landscape of the Don plain, saturated with small rivers, gullies and ravines, as well as stone raw materials available for mining, have been creating favorable conditions for human habitation since the Middle Paleolithic. The well-known Paleolithic and Mesolithic sites are found both in the watersheds and in the floodplain-terrace areas of the Middle Don. The near-mouth section of the KurmoyarskyAksai river - the Don tributary in Kotelnikovo District - and the surroundings of Kremenskaya village in Kletskaya District are standing out in terms of being studied. The stone industry detected in the lower layers of the multilayered site Schlyakh indicates that the Don plain was inhabited by people during the Middle to the Upper Paleolithic transition. The prospects of further searches for Stone Age sites in the Middle Don Basin had already been proven by the discovery of at least forty sites in previous decades. Further archaeological research will help to discover new stratified sites with impressive collections of stone and bone items, which will make it possible to draw analogies with synchronous sites in the territories adjacent to the Volgograd region.