Reply to S Riehl and K Pustovoytov (Journal of Archaeological Science 33 (2006) 143-144)

We appreciate the interest of Simone Riehl and Konstantin Pustovoytov (hereafter R&P) in our publication and here we answer their critical remarks and questions. R&P criticise two aspects: (1) our interpretation of the pollen record from Kutuzhekovo Lake and (2) the information we derived from the St. Petersburg radiocarbon database. We discuss the questions and we show that these do not really affect our earlier conclusions.