The chaines operatoires of Levallois site Pronyatyn, Western Ukraine

The Middle Palaeolithic Levallois site of Provadnyi geologically dated to Amersfoort is situated in south-west of Volyno‑Podolian upland at the right bank of the river Seret, left tributary of Middle Dniester, 6 km north from Ternopil city, West Ukraine. The site was discovered and investigated between 1977 and 1985. Assemblage includes c. 6000 lithics. The technological analysis allowed to elucidate highly complex system of different core reduction strategies, which were applied at the site. The overwhelming majority of knapped products were obtained through the exploitation of flat cores, although the idea of volume was also known and time to time was applied. Three specific forms of pre-cores can be distinguished, each of which adds specificity to modes of further reduction: careful curation of pre-cores by removal by different methods of preparation of striking platform zone (trimming, faceting) and of maintaining of flaking surface convexity (different debordants) was conducted during each stage of core reduction. There is evidence of a variety of recurrent methods, frequently regarded as Levallois, namely centripetal, uni- and bipolar, corner etc. Classical Levallois technique oriented to obtainment of a single removal through pre-core-one cycle is also represented. “Ideal blank” approach allows to define the desirable blank as bladey flake/short blade of Levallois appearance. The most specific features of Provadnyi technology are consist in frequent application of trimming technique during striking platform preparation and in acquaintance with volumetric mode of raw materials exploitation, resulted, among other, in particular type of pre-cores.