Sungir Site

an Upper Paleolithic site near the city of Vladimir on the left bank of the Kliaz’ma River. The remains of a settlement, lying under a 3-m layer of loam, date from the end of the last interglacial period, about 25,000 years ago. Excavations conducted between 1956 and 1975 have unearthed remains of campfires and hearth pits and the sites of six demolished dwellings; among the finds there were also the bones of mammoths, reindeer, bisons, wild horses, cave lions, and arctic foxes.

Two graves, with five burials thickly covered with red ocher, yielded a wealth of objects; these included about 10,000 beads and other decorations made of mammoth tusks (which made it possible for the first time to reconstruct human attire of the Paleolithic period), as well as works of art and javelins and spears made of straightened mammoth tusks. There are indications of the existence of a complex funerary ritual.