Nikolaevo-Otradnoe-III - site of the Middle Paleolithic on the shore of the Miussky estuary (northern coast of the Azov Sea)

The article examines the materials of a new Paleolithic site identified in 2020 on the right bank of the Miussky estuary near its mouth on the southern outskirts of the village of Nikolaevo-Otradnoe in the Neklinovsky district, Rostov region. Cultural remains were found at two sites on the beach and included finds of different times, including products of the Early, Middle and Late Paleolithic (the sites of Nikolaevo-Otradnoe II and III). At the site of Nikolaevo-Otradnoe III as a result of the cleanup in 2022 and 2023 of a section of a coastal cliff up to 10 m high. It was possible to establish a complex stratigraphy of loess rocks of the Late Pleistocene and identify the horizons from which stone products and animal bones originate. The complex of the Middle Paleolithic of this site is being introduced into scientific circulation. Cores, scrapes, and flakes of the Middle Paleolithic appearance were found on the beach in the area of the coastal outcrop. In the stripping, flint products of the Middle Paleolithic, together with animal bones, and mollusks’ shells, were found at a considerable depth in the gully filling of the Salyn interglacial paleosol of the Mezin pedocomplex (MIS 5e). Among the finds in the layer are scrapers, chips of various types, a core with an end working front. The fauna is represented by fossil forms of Pleistocene ass, giant deer and steppe bison. Attention is drawn to the presence of a cores in the interglacial paleosol layer with signs of Late Paleolithic cleavage technique. The find is compared with the cores with an end working front of a number of Middle Paleolithic sits of Western Europe that existed during the period of the MIS 5c. For European industries of this type, a combination of components of the Middle and Late Paleolithic is characteristic.