Flint complex of the monuments of the final Paleolithic on the territory of the Oziory lowland
The object of investigation is the flint complexes of the final Paleolithic on the territory of the Oziory lowland. The purpose of the study is a typological analysis of the flint artifacts of the final Paleolithic cultures from the collections of museums and scientific organizations and the identifying their cultural affoliation and raw sources. The relevance of the study is due to the lack of works devoted to the final Paleolithic of a particular geographical microregion in the national historiography. In the introduction, the relevance of the topic is substantiated, a historiographic and source-study review is given. In the main part, it is shown the natural and climatic conditions of the final Paleolithic and it is defined the chronological frames, characteristic features and basic tools of the final Paleolithic cultures. The analysis of the collections of different times, that are held in the funds of the Grodno State Historical and Archaeological Museum and the Institute of History of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, is carried out. Findings, relating to the final Paleolithic, are identified and described. On the basis of the characteristic features of nucleuses, the technique of processing flint, the technology of manufacturing individual tools and cultural characteristic of individual cultures of the final Paleolithic, it is made an attempt to determine the cultural affiliation of individual artifacts. In the conclusion, it is shown that analysis of the siliceous complexes contained in the collections allows to suggest that the territory of the Oziory lowland was inhabited approximately 10 thousand years ago by representatives of the Bromme-Lingby culture. In the subsequent in the given territory there were bearers of the Volkushanskaya (Krasnoselskaya) and the Sviderskaya cultures. The carriers of the final Paleolithic cultures of the Oziory lowland frequently used local chalk and moraine flint. Cretaceous flint could be extracted by open workings in chalk sediments. The obtained results can be used in conducting archaeological research, in museum work and in training courses on the history of Belarus.