The dissertation is the result of many years of archaeological research, which intermittently lasted from 1932 to present in two groups of sites near the villages of Pushkari and Klyusy of Chernihiv region. Fierce discussions among experts on the cultural and chronological place of the Pushkari’s type sites in the Upper Paleolithic of Eastern Europe lasted almost 80 years. The problem looks even more striking against the background of the periodization of the Paleolithic sites of the neighboring territories - the basins of the Dniester, the Middle Dnieper, the North cost of Black and Azov Seas, Central Ukraine, the Crimea, and the Middle Don.
The accumulated during this time a large array of information needs to be systematized and generalized. The work introduces into the scientific circle a flint material which was not properly published before. In addition, the dissertation presents the results of modern archaeological research conducted by the author over the past ten years. Besides to the numerous collections of flint products, at the Pushkari's sites found remains of dwellings with internal and external areas of life, with specially selected faunal remains. In constructive elements of the detected objects, certain principles and patterns that demonstrate a separate type of dwelling structures, that is, a unique variant of human adaptation to the environment, are followed.
On the basis of the comparative analysis of the flint complexes of the Upper Paleolithic sites of Pushkari I, Pogon and Kliusy, a number of common and distinctive features were revealed which are reflected in the technology of knapping of the raw material and the use of certain techniques for the manufacture of tools. The whole process of knapping, from the preparation of the cores to the manufacture of tools, is well observed on the materials presented in the collections. The method of refitting allowed to reproduce the sequence of actions and to identify the methods used for fracturing. For the tools produce used the entire spectrum of the resulting blades. A characteristic feature of the complexes presented is the almost complete lack of a microblade component. Tools are represented by the constant types and series, which in general reflect the economic characteristics of the sites, and consist of: backed blades and bladeless, points of large forms, retouched blades, bladeless and flakes, burins, end scrapers, borers, scaled piece notched blades, combined tools.
Thus, the traced characteristic features of the flint complexes confirm the opinion of previous researchers, about the noticeable originality of the presented sites compared with others. By the combination of a number of specific features inherent in these flint complexes, we can trace the main common trends and trends that allow us to combine them into a unique peculiar group of sites of the Pushkari’s type. The presented sites demonstrate the stadium development of the material culture of the human in a specific territory, at a specific time interval. Accordingly, we must consider Pushkari I and Kliusy among other phenomena that functioned before last glacial maximum (19 ka b.p.), and somewhat preceded by the catastrophic consequences of maximum glacial. The materials of the Pogon show an earlier stage of the development of the carriers of the Pushkari tradition within the framework of the gravettian technocomplex, indicating the long dynamics and chronology of the settlement of the human of the Desna river in the Paleolithic.
