Archaeological and natural science studies of Paleolithic paint pigments (ocher) date back more than 100 years. However, until recently, the vast majority of studies were focused on the study of individual samples, not the whole corpus of this category of materials - mineral paint raw materials (in the broad sense of the term). The description of the theoretical approach and the available results obtained in the course of testing the method of the fixation of field data and laboratory processing of ocher samples, which come in different shapes, sizes and differ in consistency, clearly demonstrate that it is fundamentally important to conduct an archaeological study of colorful pigments as a mass material prior to the natural science stage of the study. In the opposite case even goal-setting for subsequent interdisciplinary research will be virtually impossible, and its results will be extremely limited. A multifactorial study of paint materials can demonstrate a great variety of sample characteristics, both among different layers of archaeological material and artifacts from the same site, and among different sites. When approaching pigments as a mass material, statistical processing of the findings is necessary to form meaningful conclusions about the use of pigments on sites. The afore-said methodological approach reveals systemic differences, which opens up opportunities for comparison based on the methods of mathematical statistics. To obtain relevant data, such an approach requires the accumulation of a statistically significant number of pigment samples, suitable from the point of view of field algorithms. Consequently, it is only the study of a maximum available array of specimens (including a maximum of small grains) of ocher from different artifacts of the cultural layer, individual layers and different sites that makes it possible to obtain information about the cultural similarities and differences in this part of the life strategies of Upper Paleolithic groups, including the identification of the main stages of production chain. The proposed approach to the study of ocher as a mass material, if complying with the methodology of field work, is relevant for all types of archaeological sites of the Stone Age.

A technique for characterizing the color of small ochre samples was proposed. The technique includes visual color determination with the aid of a stereomicroscope and a Munsell Soil Color Chart, conversion of Munsell values to CIE L*a*b* coordinates, cluster analysis, and principle component analysis (PCA). The technique was applied to ochre samples from the Kapova Cave and Kamennaya Balka II Upper Paleolithic sites. Characterization of the color of a statistically significant number of pigment samples makes it possible to identify the relationships between different structural features of the cultural layer and reliably identify a wide range of artistic practices in parietal caves in addition to the actual creation of drawings, and it also possibly serves as a chronological marker at multi-layered sites.

Mineral pigments are one of the most common categories of finds at the sites of the Upper Paleolithic. The authors’ approach to the study of pigments is based on a detailed study of all available samples. The results of the archaeological study are complemented by the results of natural science analyses and expand the understanding of the utilitarian and symbolic use of ochre on the sites of the Upper Paleolithic. Statistical processing of the results makes it possible to compare pigments from different areas of sites. The article presents the results of studying 36 samples of pigments from the cultural layer of Sungir, as well as personal ornaments. The presence of a clay component in a thick mass prepared and used for staining a funeral costume is demonstrated. The main features of the use of pigments characteristic to the Sungir settlements include the use for household purposes of both hard and soft types of ochre, up to suspensions of varying degrees of density. The domestic use of pigments finds wide analogies on the Early and Middle Upper Paleolithic European sites, including the use of ochre as a part of the mixture originating from the filling of hearth. However, so far no materials have been identified on Sungir for the reconstruction of the entire сhaîne opératoire for the preparation of colorful substances. The symbolic use of pigments in graphic activities and practices of coloring symbolic objects on Sungir has fully similar, but not identical features with the materials of the Pavlovian sites. This is especially evident in the field of burial rite organization (staining the bottom of the grave), the use of plastic mass for thick staining of clo­thing, headdress, and the application of some personal ornaments on it, possibly partially interconnected, in the preparation of mortuary clothing. The use of suspensions of varying degrees of density on Sungir materials is shown for the first time. The methods of placing ornaments on the head associated with the burial tradition, which have direct analogies in the Moravian Pavlovian materials, have also not been discussed before.

The article presents the results of studying a series of small individual pigment particles discovered in the cultural layer of the Chelyuskinets II site, which is part of the Lower Volga Middle Paleolithic group together with the Eurasian reference site Sukhaya Mechetka and the Zaikino Pepelishche site. Preliminary results of OSL dating indicate the age of the cultural layer in the range of 150–165 thousand years BP (mid-MIS 6). The pigments of different types, including those with traces of anthropogenic impact, discovered in the area of the site studied in 2024 allow us to classify Chelyuskinets II as a circle of a few early Middle Paleolithic sites with clear evidence of various ways of using colorful pigments. The study confirms the artificial origin of pasty materials, represented by small ocher fragments, indicating the preparation and use of special suspension masses. The transformation of the raw material into a paint paste is a technological chain analogous to the production of adhesives. It is based on the idea of artificially obtained stickiness/adhesiveness properties, but with different characteristics. Such masses/solutions, in turn, reflect the existence of practices of painting objects with a permanent alteration of the surface color. A series of fragments of suspension masses from Chelyuskinets II is the earliest known evidence in Eastern Europe for the preparation and use of viscoplastic masses or thick suspensions based on mineral paint pigments, which allows us to put forward a hypothesis about the significant role of such materials in the study of the development of complex cognition and cognitive evolution of Neanderthals, which occurred in parallel with similar processes in humans of a modern physical type.