The 2017 study of the Pleistocene-Holocene transitional stone tool industries from the Ushbulak-1 site

This article presents the data from the 2017 study of the upper strata in the deposits at the stratified Paleolithic site of Ushbulak-1 (East Kazakhstan). Excavation over the area of 6 m2 was made in the upper part of an exploratory trench of 2016, reaching the depth of 3.4. m from the ground surface (layers 1-3). The stratigraphic profile has revealed three major depositional units which contained scarce archaeological evidence. The total number of artifacts was 189 objects. Technical and typological characteristics of the archaeological materials and their position in the stratigraphic sequence made it possible to tentatively recognize two assemblages which seem to have occurred at different times - the first one in the Holocene (layer 1), and the second one in the Final Pleistocene (layers 2-3). Based on the characteristics of the materials and similarities with the records from the stratified complexes in Southern Siberia, the evidence from the Pleistocene deposits could most likely be attributed to the Final Upper Paleolithic.