L’habitat à cabanes en os de mammouths de Gontsy (Ukraine) : une référence pour la reconstitution d’un système de chasseurs-cueilleurs dans son territoire basé sur l’économie du Mammouth

The long-term excavations of the LUP settlement of Gontsy (Ukraine), with its mammoth bone huts and associated with a mammoth bone bed, has allowed to reconstitute quite all the pieces of the puzzle of this type of settlements and the major role of the economy of mammoth in the Mezinian peopling of the middle and upper Dnepr basin (Ukraine and Russia). The settlements are generally sharing the same geomorphology of the location on a promontory cut by ravines on the slope of a river valley. The dwelling area is organized around mammoth bone huts, numerous pits around each hut, large working areas with hearths, dumping areas, butchering area for small and medium mammals and the existence of a mammoth bone bed, which has been largely exploited during the occupation of the settlement. The landscape analysis, using the information from the mapping, the functions and the seasonality of the settlements, is characterizing a particular system based on the economy of mammoth, limited to a short period between 15 000 and 14 000 BP at the beginning of the climatic change ending the last ice age. The network connections are supported by the raw material procurement on outcrops, particularly the flint and the shells, but also the amber, demonstrating the long distance travelling of the hunter-gatherer groups, both for the yearly discovery of the next settlement and during the annual cycle for various seasonal procurement.