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Kiik-Koba Grotto: Significance for Paleolithic Studies in East Europe and the Former Soviet Union

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Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology

Introduction

Kiik-Koba grotto and its finds, including Neanderthal remains, occupy a special place not only in the Crimean Paleolithic. Their significance for Paleolithic studies in East Europe and the former Soviet Union in general is impossible to exaggerate. Its excavations in the 1920s and subsequent publication had a significant influence on trends in Paleolithic archaeology in this part of the Old World for many years (see Bonch-Osmolowski 1940), due to the scientific rigor of Gleb A. Bonch-Osmolowski of then Leningrad. According to Gladilin, his scientific works “entered into the Golden Fund of Soviet and World-wide archaeological science and till now remain exemplary” (Gladilin 1985).

The grotto is situated on the right bank of the Zuya river 120 m above the river’s modern water level, in a rocky massif of Jurassic limestone, within the northern spurs of Dolgorukovskaya Yaila, part of the first ridge of the Crimean Mountains in Eastern Crimea, about 25 km east of Simferopol and...

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References

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Demidenko, Y.E. (2014). Kiik-Koba Grotto: Significance for Paleolithic Studies in East Europe and the Former Soviet Union. In: Smith, C. (eds) Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-0465-2_1868

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