Revisiting the issue of differences between dune sites and bog settlements

The Mesolithic in the European part of Russia is represented, mostly, by dunesites. A substantial increase in the number of the so called bog settlements discovered andexcavated in the 1980-1990-s has created a myth of the bog settlement wealth and scarcityof finds at the dune sites. The author's excavation experience demonstrates that this kindof comparison and relevant conclusions are not quite right. Dry valleys where people livedwere the same in both cases, they are usually made up of sand. Differences between thesetwo types of the sites reside in absence of depositional sediment tails at the dune sites andtheir presence at many bog settlements. Depositional sediment tails are relief featuresof quick accumulation, where organic matter was buried at once and is preserved muchbetter. However, tails are not settlements and their inhabited areas. Basically, they are nomore than natural dumping grounds with an abundance of artifacts. To shape an adequatepicture of the past, there is a need to compare phenomena of the same magnitude, whichare constructed on the basis of the geoarchaeology methods