Argillite artifacts and final Pleistocene to middle Holocene cultural links across the Vitim river basin (Baikal region)

This paper presents the results of X-ray fluorescence and X-ray diffraction analyses of argillite artifacts from Kovrizhka I on the lower Vitim and Ust-Karenga XVI on the upper Vitim. The specimens from layer 2 of Kovrizhka I date to ca 6 radiocarbon ka BP and belong to a non-ceramic culture with microblades. Two ritual pits at Ust-Karenga XVI, dating to 7-6 radiocarbon ka BP and associated with the late stage of the Ust-Karenga Neolithic culture, contained clusters of artifacts made of dark-brown argillite, including prismatic cores, blades, inserts, and end-scrapers made on blades. At both sites, similar argillite end-scrapers made on large blade-like spalls were found in different years. Their chemical analysis suggests that the raw material was the same, attesting to cultural ties. The distance between the sites along the river is ca 700 km-the largest range of connections evidenced to date in the prehistoric Baikal area. It was previously demonstrated that the artifact from volcanic pumice, found at Ust-Karenga XVI, had been transported from the Udokan volcanic field, which was also a source of a piece of volcanic pumice from Kovrizhka III layer 3.The same sources of raw material, then, were exploited by different populations over a long period. Our review favors the idea of episodic contacts rather than a single population dispersed across a territory between Ust-Karenga and Kovrizhka.