Ukraine 2017 "The Cultural Epochs of Ukraine: Paleolithic Age"


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Issue Date 20.01.2017
ID Michel: Scott: Stanley Gibbons: Yvert: Category: pR
Designer S. Kharuk, O. Kharuk
Stamps in set 2
Value 7.50 UAH - Upper of the Paleolithic Age,
7.50 UAH - Middle of the Paleolithic Age
Size (width x height) Block: 136x67.8mm
Stamps size: 38.28x24.36mm
Layout MS with 2 stamps
Products FDC x1
Paper
Perforation 13x13
Print Technique multicolor, offset
Printed by SE "Intrgrated Printing Plant" Ukraina for Production of Securities
Quantity
Issuing Authority Ukrainian State Enterprise of Posts Ukrposhta
Prehistoric hunters and Mammoth on stamps of Ukraine 2017

On January 20, 2017, Post authority of Ukraine (Ukrposhta) issued a Souvenir Sheet with two stamps inside: "The Cultural Epochs of Ukraine: Paleolithic Age".
These stamps shows some scenes from Upper and Middle Paleolithic Age.

The Paleolithic period, also called the Old Stone Age, is a period in prehistory distinguished by the original development of stone tools that covers about 99% of the period of human technological prehistory.
It extends from the earliest known use of stone tools by hominins about 3.3 million years ago, to the end of the Pleistocene about 12.000 years before present.
A scene from the Middle Paleolithic Age stamps of Ukraine 2017 A scene from the Upper Paleolithic Age stamps of Ukraine 2017
A scene from the Middle Paleolithic Age stamps of Ukraine 2017, MiNr.: 1597, Scott: A scene from the Upper Paleolithic Age stamps of Ukraine 2017, MiNr.: 1598, Scott:
The period divided to three ages:
  • Early of Lower from 3.3 million to 300.000 years ago
  • Middle from 300.000 years ago to 50.000 years ago
  • Late or Upper from 50.000 years ago to 12.000 years ago
During the Paleolithic Age, hominins grouped together in small societies such as bands and subsisted by gathering plants, fishing, and hunting or scavenging wild animals.
The Paleolithic Age is characterized by the use of knapped stone tools, although at the time humans also used wood and bone tools.
Other organic commodities were adapted for use as tools, including leather and vegetable fibers; however, due to rapid decomposition, these have not survived to any great degree.

Humankind gradually evolved from early members of the genus Homo—such as Homo habilis, who used simple stone tools—into anatomically modern humans as well as behaviourally modern humans by the Upper Paleolithic.
During the end of the Paleolithic Age, specifically the Middle or Upper Paleolithic Age, humans began to produce the earliest works of art and to engage in religious or spiritual behaviour such as burial and ritual.
Remains of the dwelling of hunters for mammoths from Mezyn Paleolithic Site
Remains of the dwelling of hunters for mammoths from Mezyn Paleolithic Site. Image credit: Wikipedia.
Mammoth on FDC illustration of Mezyn National Nature Park stamps of Ukraine 2019
Mammoth and dwelling of hunters for mammoths on cachet of an FDC with Mezyn National Nature Park stamps of Ukraine 2019.
There are many Paleolithic camps were found on the territory of modern Ukraine.

One of the most valuable and unique is Mezyn Paleolithic Camp.

In the autumn of 1907, some large bones were found in the yard of the Cossack Koshel from the village of Mizyn (Korop region, right bank of Desna River). The news quickly spread and achieved some archaeologists, who made some excavation in the following year.

The Mezyn Paleolithic Camp known today as Mezin 22. This site is a settlement of prehistoric people Cro-Magnons from the Late Paleolithic.
Remains, bones and skins, of over 100 individual mammoths, as well as many wolfs and deers, found at the site. Many of these remains were used for construction of dwelling of hunters, which they built from the bones of animals covered with their hides, like the "yurt" of the northern tribes.
One of such dwelling depicted on the cachet of the FDC.
The walls were erected with largest mammoth bones including skulls, pelvis, scapula, jaws, long bones and tusks.

The Mezinian dwellings show a real architectural evolution in the history of prehistoric architecture. For the first time, they have foundations, made by a circle of skulls.
There was a circle of pits of various sizes, depths and contents around the huts.
Some pits contain a certain number of large mammoth bones and have been interpreted for storing reserve bones for the huts.
Some others contain various bones and artefacts and have been interpreted as garbage areas.
Hearths have been sometimes installed on the top of a pit, fulfilled by various artefacts.
On top of the bones and huts many art and tools artefacts were unearthed on the site: ornamented figurines from mammoth ivory, meander bracelet and a painted set of musical instruments made of animal bones.
In 1965 "Mezyn Archaeological and Research Museum" (Мезинський народний археологічний науково-дослідний музей) opened at the place of the Paleolithic site.

One of the dwellings from the camp is on display in the "National Museum of Natural Sciences of Ukraine" in Kiev.
Another one was donated to American Museum of Natural History.





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FDC FDC posted as regular and registered letters
Clean FDC with The Cultural Epochs of Ukraine: Paleolithic Age stamps of Ukraine 2017 Circulated FDC with The Cultural Epochs of Ukraine: Paleolithic Age stamps of Ukraine 2017 Circulated FDC with The Cultural Epochs of Ukraine: Paleolithic Age stamps of Ukraine 2017
FDC - reverse side FDC posted as regular and registered letters
Reverse side of FDC with The Cultural Epochs of Ukraine: Paleolithic Age stamps of Ukraine 2017 Circulated FDC with The Cultural Epochs of Ukraine: Paleolithic Age stamps of Ukraine 2017 Circulated FDC with The Cultural Epochs of Ukraine: Paleolithic Age stamps of Ukraine 2017



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