Yuri Demydenko
Berehove/Kyiv
Host: Andreas Maier
Prehistoric Archaeology
Research Project
Social and instrumental practices of the Ice Age. Spatio-temporal patterns of tool-making and tool-use during the Last Glacial Maximum and their implications for knowledge transfer and agency in small-world societies
Stone tools are the best-preserved remains of practices of Ice Age peoples and an important proxy for inferring knowledge transfer and agency. The practice of tool-making and tool-use is an integral part of Paleolithic mundane daily life. It is embedded in larger bundles of compound practices with a characteristically pronounced spatio-temporal distribution. Identifying patterns of compound practices and idiosyncrasies and comparing them through time and space allows inferences about production, persistence, and transfer of knowledge as well as the agency of stone-tool practitioners. This project will focus on the Last Glacial Maximum, i.e. the time 25.000 to 19.000 years ago. At the beginning of this period, two communities, presumably without contact over the course of 1500 years, can be observed in Western and Eastern Europe with fundamentally different ecological preferences as well as instrumental and social practices. Later, the practices connected to the demographically much smaller community in Eastern Europe become dominant also in the Western European community. The proposed project aims at a better understanding of this puzzling and to date poorly understood process.
Yuri Demydenko
Vita
Yuri E. Demydenko studied archaeology and history at Kyiv State University (1979-1984). Then he worked at the Kyiv Archaeological Museum, the Zoological and later the Archaeological Institute of the National Academy of Science of Ukraine (1983-1995). In 1990, he defended his PhD thesis on “The initial stage of Upper Paleolithic in the Carpathian-Balkan region” at the Institute of History, Philology & Philosophy at the Siberian Branch of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (Novosibirsk, Russia, USSR. In 1995-2014, Demydenko worked at the Crimean Branch of the Archaeological Institute of the National Academy of Science of Ukraine (Simferopol, Crimea, Ukraine). When Russia occupied Crimea, Demydenko left Crimea and worked in Kyiv at the Archaeological Institute National Academy of Science of Ukraine (2014-2022). Since 2018 he has been working at Ferenc Rakoczi II Transcarpathian Hungarian College of Higher Education (Berehove, Transcarpathia).
Research Areas
- Paleolithic Archaeology research in Ukraine, Russia, Poland, Jordan, Syria, and Czechia.
Publications (Selection)
Books
- V.P. Chabai, Yu.E. Demidenko & A.I. Yevtushenko. 2000. Paleolithic of the Crimea: methods of investigations and conceptual approaches. Simferopol – Kyiv.
- Yu.E. Demidenko (ed.). 2004. Buran-Kaya III rock-shelter, layer B – the etalon find complex for Kiik-Koba type industry of Crimean Micoquian Tradition. Complex analysis of flint artifacts. Simferopol – Kyiv.
- Yu.E. Demidenko, M. Otte & P. Noiret (eds.). 2012. Siuren I rock-shelter. From Late Middle Paleolithic and Early Upper Paleolithic to Epi-Paleolithic in Crimea. Liege.
- Yu.E. Demidenko & Th. Uthmeier. 2013. Kiik-Koba groto, Crimea (Ukraine). Re-analysis of a key site of the Crimean Micoquian. Kölner studien zur Prähistorischen archäologie Band 3. Cologne.
Articles
- Demidenko, Yu.E., Škrdla, P. 2023. Lincombian Ranisian Jerzmanowician Industry and South Moravian Sites: a Homo sapiens Late Initial Upper Paleolithic with Bohunician Industrial Generic Roots in Europe // Journal of Palaeolithic Archaeology 6:17.
- Demidenko, Yu.E., Škrdla, P., Beres, S., Racz, B., Nemergut, A. 2022 (published in February 2023) The Middle Aurignacian in the Carpathian Basin of Eastern Central Europe // Slovenska Archeologia LXX (2): 189-255.
- Demidenko, Yu.E., Škrdla, P., Rácz, B., Nemergut, A., Béres, S. 2021. Aurignacian in the Carpathian Basin of Eastern Central Europe and its Proto-Aurignacian industry type. Materiale și Cercetări Arheologice (serie nouă) suppl. I: 141-182.
- Demidenko, Yu.E. 2021. South of Eastern Europe and Upper Paleolithic diversity around the Last Glacial Maximum. Quaternary International 581-582: 290–295.
- Demidenko, Yu.E., Rácz, B., Nemergut, A. 2020. Proto-Aurignacian unique site cluster in Europe: logistic settlement pattern with a base camp and a series of supply chain loci at raw material outcrops in Transcarpathia (Ukraine). Slovenská archeológia LXVIII-2: 193-218.
- Demidenko, Yu.E., Škrdla, P, Rios-Garaizar, J. 2019. In between Gravettian and Epigravettian in Central and Eastern Europe: a peculiar LGM Early Late Upper Paleolithic industry. Přehled výzkumů, 60-1: 11-42.
Contact
Prof. Yuri E. Demydenko
Paleolithic Archaeology
Ferenc Rakoczi II Transcarpathian Hungarian College of Higher Education, Berehove
Erich Auerbach Institute for Advanced Studies
Fellowship: 01.12.2025–31.01.2026
E-mail: yu.e.demidenko(at)gmail(dot)com