Cultural interactions of the inhabitants of the Urals during the Paleolithic age

The problems of cultural interactions of the inhabitants of the Urals during the Paleolithic Age are considered. During the Middle (MIS5 ca. 80 ka BP) and the early Upper Paleolithic (MIS3 ca. 36-28 ka BP) Ages the southern and central regions of the Eastern European Plain were the first areas in the Urals to be colonized. The Middle Paleolithic sites of the region were associated with pan European Middle Paleolithic Kielmessergruppen. The early Upper Paleolithic sites of the Urals represented symbiotic (or transitional) cultures which spread all over Europe during MIS3. The end of MIS3 (ca. 27-24 ka BP) was marked by drastical changes in archaeological situation in Eastern Europe: symbiotic (or transitional) early Upper Paleolithic regions disappeared, and the middle Upper Paleolithic (Aurignacoid and Gravettoid) industries replaced them in the central part of the East European Plain. These changes affected the Urals in a specific way. At the end of MIS3 early Upper Paleolithic symbiotic (or transitional) industries also disappeared in the Urals, but there was no substitution for the middle Upper Paleolithic cultures, and the region during the time span of 27-19 ka BP remained uninhabited. The reason for this is likely to be the unfavorable climatic conditions of the first half of MIS2 in the Urals. In the Late Paleolithic Age (MIS2 19-13 ka BP) due to migrations from south-east, constant inhabitants came to the Urals, thus developing local Urals Late Paleolithic culture, initially connected with the Upper Paleolithic industries of the Southern Siberia. During the Final Paleolithic Age (MIS2-MIS1 12.5-9.5 ka BP) the process of segmentation of the Urals Late Paleolithic culture started to emerge, leading to the development of the Urals historical-cultural area. At that time constant cultural interactions among inhabitants of the Urals and the East European plain could undoubtedly be traced.