The Kostyonki–Borshchyovo archaeological complex is an extended Upper Paleolithic site, covering 30 km2 in the area of Kostyonki and Borshchyovo on the western middle bank of the Don River in Khokholsky District, Voronezh Oblast, Russia, some 25 km south of the city ofVoronezh. It is divided into sites Kostenki-1-21 and Borshchevo-1-5, which are in turn divided into 10 stratigraphical layers. It is known for its high concentration of cultural remains of anatomically modern humans from the beginning of the Upper Paleolithic era, before 40,000 years ago. Finds are on exhibit in situ, at the State Archaeological Museum–Reserve Kostyonki built atop the mammoth bone circle Kostenki11.
History
teeth were found at the site from an early time. Cornelis de Bruijn wrote in 1703: The site is also mentioned by Samuel Gottlieb Gmelin in 1768. The settlement name Kostyonki itself is a derivation from кость "bone". Kostenki-1 was excavated by I. S. Polyakov in 1879. Further excavations during 1881-1915 were mostly searches for stone tools. Systematic excavations were performed from the 1920s, most notably those led by P.P. Efimenko during 1923-1938. In the second half of the 20th century it was recognized that there were other sites in the neighbourhood, now labelled Kostenki-1 to Kostenki-21 and Borshchevo-1 to Borshchevo-5. The most famous of these are Kostenki-12 and Kostenki-14. A 25,000-year-old bone circle structure of at least 60 mammoths, measuring over in diameter, was discovered at Kostenki in 2020.
Sites
Kostenki-1/2, Kostenki-1/3, Kostenki-6, Kostenki-11 and Kostenki 12/3 below the volcanic CI tephra layer are associated to the nontransitional local "Strelets culture", analogous to early Upper Paleolithic cultures from central and western Europe such as the Szeletian culture. This initial cultural development might be attributable to local Neanderthals. Ornaments predating the volcanic eruption, found at Kostenki 17/2, were apparently perforated by a hand-operated rotary drill or drills; these may suggest that the population was technologically capable of preparing for a volcanic winter. Just above the ash layer sewing needles were found. Kostenki 1/1, Kostenki 4/2, Kostyonki 8/2 and Kostenki 21/3 belong to the eastern Gravettian. Kostenki 2, Kostenki 3, Kostenki 11-1a and Kostenki-19 belong to the Zamyatino culture. Kostenki 8/2 is eponymous of "Telman culture". As of 2016, archaeological work is done at Kostenki-14, Kostenki-6, Kostenki-15, Kostenki-16, Kostenki-17 and Kostenki-21.
Human remains
In the period around 40-24 kya, a latitudinalclinal pattern of modern/Neanderthal traits was indicated in Europe. The Kostyonki sites are located at the more modern eastward end. The earliest directly dated human remains from this site are dated to 32,600 ± 1,100 14C years and consist of a tibia and a fibula, with traits classifying the bones as European early modern humans. In 2009, DNA was extracted from the remains of a male hunter-gatherer from Kostenki-12 who lived circa 30,000 BP and died aged 20–25. His maternal lineage was found to be mtDNA haplogroupU2. He was buried in an oval pit in a crouched position and covered with red ochre. Kostenki 12 was later found to belong to the patrilinealY-DNA haplogroup C1*. A male from Kostenki-14, who lived approximately 35–40,000 BP, was also found to belong to mtDNA haplogroup U2. His Y-DNA haplogroup was C1b*. The Kostenki-14 genome represents early evidence for the separation of Western Eurasian and East Asian lineages. It was found to have a close relationship to both "Mal'ta boy" of south-east Siberia and to the later Mesolithic hunter-gatherers of Europe and western Siberia, as well as with a basal population ancestral to Early European Farmers, but not to East Asians.
