Previous research results for new Palaeolithic site Belyja rechki – 1 (Volkovysk District, Grodno Region)

Abstract

The results of studies of a new archaeological site Belyja rechki – 1 (Volkovysk district, Grodno region) are introduced into scientific circulation. The object was discovered by the author in the spring of 2025 during exploration near the urban settlement of Ross, which was carried out to survey the area for the presence of sites of the final Palaeolithic period. In the summer of the same year, excavations and prospecting of the area were carried out as part of the archaeological and ethnographic practice of history students and the activities of the student research archaeological laboratory. The result of the field season was a collection of materials in the amount of 728 items that were located in the cultural layer and the culture-containing horizon. The placement of the site in the distribution zone of deposits of the upper Poozersky time made it possible to associate some of the items that were located in sand and gravel deposits with the late Palaeolithic period. This hypothesis is confirmed by the technical and morphological characteristics of the artifacts and their external condition. In addition to these materials, the cultural layer contains objects that belong to the final Palaeolithic, possibly the Mesolithic, the late Neolithic – early Iron Age, and the Modern Time. Thus, the site Belyja rechki – 1 is the first object with materials of the late Palaeolithic in Ross River basin with a recorded stratigraphic position of the culture-containing horizon.