Complex geological and paleogeographic studies have established for the first time that the so-called humus interlayers in the deluvial plume of the Kostenki-14 site represent fossil soils of various origins. It is shown that in the system of cryogenic deformations in the section, a certain role was played not by solifluction processes, but by the mechanism of block displacement of the thickness as a whole. In the epoch corresponding to the oldest cultural layer IVb (~37-36 thousand years AGO), on the site of a steep slope ("cape") Markina Mountain had a flat valley cut by a stream. The early period of the site's functioning (the second half of the Srednevaldai mega-interstadial) was characterized by a favorable climate, which determined the development of coniferous and broad-leaved forests. Under the conditions of the beginning of the cold snap, coniferous spruce forests still existed in the epoch corresponding to the IVa cultural layer (~33 thousand years ago). At the final segment of the megainterstadial in the vicinity of the site, the landscapes changed only in the range from periglacial to tundra and forest-tundra. The most severe, cryoarid conditions of the pleniglacial existed during the accumulation of layer I (~22 thousand L. N.). Keywords: Upper Pleistocene, Late Paleolithic, chronostratigraphy, paleocryogenesis, landscape and climate reconstructions. Introduction In the unique concentration of Late Paleolithic sites in the Kostenkovsko-Borshchevsky district, the complex of monuments of the early Late Paleolithic period is of particular importance for understanding the stages of the history of primitive society as a whole. In the 50s-70s of the XX century, the basis of the chronostratigraphic sequence of cultural layers of this complex was laid [Rogachev, 1957; Boriskovsky, 1963], which was based to a certain extent on geological and geomorphological studies of slope plumes of the second above-flood terrace of the Don River, conducted by M. N. Grishchenk ... Read more