Cultural and chronological groups and ethno-cultural processes in the Mesolithic of the Ulyanovsk Volga region

The paper summarizes the results of the study of the Mesolithic era in the Ulyanovsk region. The range of used sources was expanded due to the allocation of Mesolithic admixture in a number of sites previously considered Neolithic (Lugovoe III, Lebyazhye I, II, Melekess III-V, Elshanka X). It seems possible to distinguish 3 main cultural and chronological groups of Mesolithic monuments belonging to the Ust-Kamskaya, Kamskaya and related Romanovsko-Ilmurzinskaya cultures, as well as to the Russian-Lugovskaya culture. In the Early Mesolithic, the Volga valley from the mouth of the Kama river to Ulyanovsk was occupied by the Ust-Kamakaya culture. In the Middle Mesolithic it was replaced by the bearers of the microlithic tradition of the Kamskaya and Romanovsko-Ilmurzinkaya cultures that came from the Trans-Urals; some groups of them reached the Sura river. At the same time the Russian-Lugovskaya culture was spreading in the Mari-Chuvash Volga region and in the bordering areas of the Ulyanovsk region. At the end of the Mesolithic era, there was a general movement of the population in the northern direction and the arrival of the steppe population of the Seroglazovkaya culture; this was caused by the beginning of cooling and aridification of the Volga steppe zone.