Mezhyrich
Mezhyrich (Ukrainian: Межиріч, also referred to as Mezhirich) is a village (selo) in central Ukraine. It is located in the Kanivskyi Raion (district) of the Cherkasy Oblast (province), approximately 22 km from the region's administrative center, Kaniv, near the point where the Rosava River flows into the Ros'.
Pre-historic finds
In 1965, a farmer dug up the lower jawbone of a mammoth while in the process of expanding his cellar. Further excavations revealed the presence of 4 huts, made up of a total of 149 mammoth bones. These dwellings, dating back some 15,000 years, were determined to have been some of the oldest shelters known to have been constructed by pre-historic man, usually attributed to Cro-Magnon. Also found on the site:
- a map inscribed onto a bone, presumably showing the area around the settlement
- remains of a "drum", made of a mammoth skull painted with a pattern of red ocher dots and lines
- amber ornaments and fossil shells
See also
References
- Bibikov, S. N. (Sergei Nikolaevich) (1981). Drevneishii Muzykalnyi Kompleks iz Kostei Mamonta: Ocherk Materialnoi i Dukhovnoi Kultury Paleoliticheskogo Cheloveka (The Oldest Musical Complex Made of Mammoth Bones). Akademiia Nauk Ukrainskoi SSR, Institut Arkheologii. Kiev, Ukraine: Naukova Dumka. In Russian. Contains summary in English and French; table of contents also in English and French.
- Pidoplichko, I. H. (1998) Upper Palaeolithic dwellings of mammoth bones in the Ukraine: Kiev-Kirillovskii, Gontsy, Dobranichevka, Mezin and Mezhirich, Oxford: J. and E. Hedges. ISBN 0-86054-949-6.
- Pidoplichko, I. H. (1978) The Mezhirich mammoth-bone houses, U.S. Geological Survey. ISBN B0006WZGIS.
- (Ukrainian) (1972). Icтopiя мicт i ciл Укpaїнcькoї CCP - Черкаськa область (History of Towns and Villages of the Ukrainian SSR - Cherkasy Oblast), Kiev.
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