Chronological and stratigraphic frameworks are of the utmost importance for Upper Paleolithic archaeology, physical anthropology, and ecology. Wide ranging radiocarbon (14C) dates were previously obtained for the Sungir burial complex in the central part of European Russia, which is well-known as the richest funeral Paleolithic assemblage in the world yet recorded. The major problem was the contamination caused by consolidants used during the recovery of human bones in the 1960s. The stratigraphy and spatial structure of the Sungir site were also not well understood previously. New radiocarbon and stable isotope data are generated for the Sungir burials. While some dates were younger due to incomplete removal of contamination, the XAD 14C age on S-1 burial (ca. 29,780 BP) was found to be statistically the same as the previously performed HYP 14C age for this burial (ca. 28,890 BP). Four animal bones found in cultural layer below the burial date to ca. 28,800–30,140 BP, suggesting that both this layer and human burials date to roughly this age range. Narrowing these ages further is difficult considering the larger errors of the 14C dates. This shows that future research attempting to 14C date material excavated many years ago needs to eliminate potential contamination from consolidants through analyses such as FTIR, prior to 14C dating. The chronology and stratigraphy of Sungir do not contradict to correlation of its lithic artifacts with the Streletskian assemblage as the East European variant of the Final Szeletian technocomplex (Early Upper Paleolithic).

Circular features made from mammoth bone are known from across Upper Palaeolithic Eastern Europe, and are widely identified as dwellings. The first systematic flotation programme of samples from a recently discovered feature at Kostenki 11 in Russia has yielded assemblages of charcoal, burnt bone and microlithic debitage. New radiocarbon dates provide the first coherent chronology for the site, revealing it to be one of the oldest such features on the Russian Plain. The authors discuss the implications for understanding the function of circular mammoth-bone features during the onset of the Last Glacial Maximum.

Loess-paleosol sequences of the last interglacial-glacial cycle are correlated from European Russia to central Siberia and the Chinese Loess Plateau. During cold periods represented by marine oxygen isotope stages (OIS) 2 and 4, loess deposition dominated in the Russian Plain and the Loess Plateau. In central Siberia, loess deposition took place also, but five to seven thin, weakly developed paleosols are identified in both stages. OIS 3, in the Chinese Loess Plateau near Yangchang, consists of a loess bed that is flanked by two weakly developed paleosols. At Kurtak, Siberia, OIS 3 is represented by two distinct, stacked paleosols with no loess bed separating the paleosols. In the Russian Plain, OIS 3 consists of a single, possibly welded paleosol, representing upper and lower stage-3 climates. Brunisols and Chernozems dominate the profiles in China and Siberia, whereas Regosols, Luvisols, and Chernozems are evident in the northern and southern Russian Plain, respectively. OIS 5 is represented in China and the Russian Plain by pedo complexes in a series of welded soils, whereas in contrast, the Kurtak site consists of six paleosols with interbedded loess. The paleosols consist largely of Brunisols and Chernozems. Although the three areas examined have different climates, geographical settings, and loess source areas, they all had similar climate changes during the last interglacial-glacial cycle.

The Black Sea is connected to a large drainage area including the European Russian Plain, part of the Alps and southeastern Europe. To study the hydrological changes in this basin over the last 40,000 years, we measured specific terrigenous biomarkers for wetland vegetation in well-dated sediments from the northwestern Black Sea, spanning the last glacial period (lacustrine phase) and the Holocene (marine phase). Low abundances of these biomarkers are observed during the North Atlantic ice melting and cooling events known as Heinrich Events 4 to 2, the Last Glacial Maximum and the Younger Dryas Event. Increased biomarker inputs characterize the mild climate phases known as Dansgaard–Oeschger Interstadials, the Bølling/Allerød and Preboreal Warmings indicating increased erosion due to permafrost degradation, higher primary productivity and/or wetland extension in the drainage basin. The final retreat of the Fennoscandian Ice Sheet from the Russian Plain occurs during the early part of Heinrich Event 1 and is characterized by increased biomarker concentrations in a typical series of four deglacial clay layers. For the last glacial period, the correspondence in timing between the biomarker records and the atmospheric CH4 record from ice cores, suggests an important CH4 contribution due to boreal permafrost thawing and wetland emission.

During the last decades a considerable amount of data on mammals from Mikulino (=Eemian) deposits of the central and southern parts of the Russian Plain has been produced. Mammuthus primigenius (the early type), Palaeoloxodon antiquus (the advanced form), Arvicola ex gr. terrestris, Eolagurus cf. luteus and Lagurus cf. lagurus characterize this period. The so-called ‘Shkurlatian mammal assemblage’ was distinguished on the basis of a number of Eemian faunas.

The age of the mammal localities was established by using various geological and palaeontological evidence, together with the results of palaeomagnetic studies and absolute dating. The evolutionary level of the diagnostic species allows correlations between localities from different parts of the Russian Plain that have varying taphonomical conditions. The mammal- and malacofauna of the Mikulino Interglacial can also be used as a basis for correlations between the Karangat marine strata of the Black Sea and the continental deposits (alluvial sediments of the second terrace of the Sudost’ River and the Salyn phase of the Mezin fossil pedocomplex (see Dodonov et al., this volume). Forest, forest-steppe and steppe zone landscapes have been reconstructed for the central and southern parts of the Russian Plain on the basis of the Eemian faunas.