Paleoenvironment, the stone age. Рубрика в журнале - Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia
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We describe three processed fossilized bones of sea mammals of the Miocene age, discovered in various years, but in similar stratigraphic and planigraphic contexts, at the Early Paleolithic site Bogatyri/Sinyaya Balka, on the northern coast of the Taman Peninsula. We provide information on the age, stratigraphy, and planigraphy of the site, interpreted as a place for butchering carcasses of elephants and rhinoceroses (elasmotheres). Results of traceological analysis suggest that two fossilized seal bones had been split by the counterstrike technique on soft (wooden or bone) anvils, while the third bone had been more thoroughly processed. All three specimens may have been collected from coastal deposits. Fossilized seal bones were evidently used as raw material along with rocks and animal bones of the Taman faunal complex. Small and inconvenient as they are, such bones provided the hardest isotropic material available at the site. That their use was not incidental is convincingly demonstrated by artifact No. 1, found in 2005. The point made on this bone is situated in the middle of an intentionally prepared blade, in a notch fashioned by shallow retouch. This bone tool is quite similar to other points in the Early Paleolithic industry of Bogatyri/Sinyaya Balka. Tools of that category differ in shape and size, but are similar because of a special morphological element— a point (bec, borer, etc.) shaped by a combination of retouch and small encoches at any suitable place in the blank such as jointing or spall.
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Geomorphology and quaternary sediments at archaeological sites near Anzhevka, Krasnoyarsk territory
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Hominin-Carnivoran adaptive strategies in Western Europe during the early Pleistocene
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Human Remains from a Neolithic Burial at Krokhalevka-5 on the Upper Ob: Physical Type and Origin
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We describe the skeletal remains of a male, aged 25–30, from the Neolithic burial 33 at Krokhalevka-5 in the Upper Ob basin, 21 km northwest of Novosibirsk, dating to the mid-5th millennium BC. Craniometric, dental metric, and nonmetric traits are analyzed. Cranial measurements are evaluated in the context of their variation in 58 individuals representing 11 local populations of the Paleolithic and Neolithic of Northern Eurasia. Data were processed using the principal component analysis in the STATISTICA 10 software. The first PC differentiates crania in terms of general size. The structure of loadings on PC2 indicates the presence of western and eastern trait combinations. The position of individuals on PC1 and PC2 reveals heterogeneity apparently caused by the conservatism of the underlying substratal populations. The Krokhalevka-5 individual is closest to those from Firsovo XI (Barnaul stretch of the Ob) and Zarechnoye-1 (Salair region). They are rather similar to the Volosovo individual from Sakhtysh-2A in Central Russia and a Kitoy individual from Fofanovo in the Trans-Baikal area. These findings point to a complex origin of the Upper Ob population on the basis of one of the evolutionarily conservative Mesolithic or Neolithic substratal components, possibly admixed with more consolidated eastern and western ones introduced by migration. Neolithic crania from Baraba contrast with those from the Upper Ob, suggesting that different substrates were involved in the population history of those regions.
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This study focuses on the composition of the adhesives used to repair clay vessels, and on the technique of their preparation in the Late Neolithic and Chalcolithic (late 4th to early 3rd millennia BC) sites of Far Northeast Europe (the Republic of Komi and the Nenets Autonomous Okrug). Remains of adhesives were detected on 70 of 171 repaired pots. To date, five samples of ceramics from dwellings of the Chuzhyael culture have been analyzed. Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry revealed no markers of coniferous trees or bitumen; but did reveal markers of birch, suggesting that fractures and cracks on broken pots were plastered with birch tar. The composition of organic compounds in samples indicates the use of two vessels in the technological process: in one of them, birch bark was subjected to pyrolysis, while the other was a receptacle for tar. This comparatively complex technology reveals one more specialization in the domestic manufacture of the taiga hunter-gatherers, including the use of special furnaces. Analytic procedures employed by us open up new prospects for the study of the material culture of Far Northeast Europe, extend our knowledge of domestic manufacture, and offer new material for AMS dating.
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This paper presents the results of a comprehensive analysis of lithics from layer 3 of Okladnikov Cave and their relevance to the Sibiryachikha industries of the Altai Mountains. Attribute analysis has shown that the industry of layer 3 demonstrates technological and typological similarities with the Sibiryachikha industries. These include radial flaking with an offset technological axis, a predominance of convergent side-scrapers, and a series of planoconvex bifacial tools. Functionally, the site was a camp where horse and rhinoceros carcasses were butchered and consumed. The analysis of flaking sequence integrity revealed similarity between Okladnikov layer 3 and Chagyrskaya industries in terms of primary and bifacial reduction. The initial stages of core decortication were carried out outside the cave, at the rock outcrops. Subsequent stages of core utilization and all stages of bifacial flaking were carried out in situ. The main difference between Okladnikov layer 3 and Chagyrskaya layer 6c/2 industries concerns only the stage of manufacturing and modifying stone tools. At Okladnikov Cave, these processes were much more intense than at Chagyrskaya, which may indicate transportation of numerous tools and blanks made of high-quality raw material from more distant sources.
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Insight into ceramic technologies at the Maikop site of Ust-Dzheguta, Karachay-Cherkessia
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Komudvany—a Final Paleolithic Site in the Lower Ob Valley: Geomorphology, Paleontology, Archaeology
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This article is devoted to the preliminary results of multidisciplinary studies at Komudvany—a site located within a “mammoth cemetery” in the Lower Ob basin. We present the excavation history, geomorphological characteristics, results of radiocarbon analysis, and descriptions of archaeological and faunal remains. According to geological and geomorphological criteria, three parts of the site are distinguished: the terrace, the promontory, and the fl oodplain. The radiocarbon analyses of bones show the chronological heterogeneity of fl oodplain fi nds. Finds from the promontory and the terrace most likely represent a single episode of habitation and butchering or collecting bones and tusks. The mammoth “cemetery” was dated to 20–12 cal ka BP. At least one episode of habitation and human activities has been registered and dated to 15–14 cal ka BP. Archaeological fi nds and series of radiocarbon dates suggest the attribution of Komudvany to the Final Paleolithic. It is the northernmost site of that period in the West Siberian Plain and, along with Lugovskoye, is a reference object for studying the early human habitation in the northern regions of Asia.
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Here, we present initial results of a new course of research being carried out at the Moiltyn-am, Orkhon-1, and Orkhon-7 Paleolithic sites in the Orkhon River Valley, central Mongolia. Our research focuses on the Moiltyn-am site, which preserves a cultural and chronological sequence from the Final Middle to the Late Upper Paleolithic. Results from analyses of rare earth elements, Strontium (Sr) isotopes, and faunal assemblages are correlated with data on paleoenvironmental conditions in the region during MIS-3 and MIS-2. Our conclusions are based in part upon post- depositional changes detectable in archaeological material from cultural layers at the Moiltyn-am site revealed through convergent analyses of stratigraphy, sedimentology, planigraphy, and the comparison of Sr isotopes in sediments and osteological remains. XRF-derived geochemical data from the Moiltyn-am sedimentary sequence yields evidence of past climatic conditions. We correlated these data with human occupational episodes in the Orkhon Valley during the Middle and Upper Paleolithic, and the results are analyzed in the context of extant paleoenvironmental information from northern Mongolia. Our results indicate a relatively humid climate prevailed during MIS-3, followed by a period of aridification, and the redeposition of sediments at Moiltyn-am. Faunal analysis reveals that Bos sp. and equids were the principal prey species for humans in the Final Middle to Initial Upper Paleolithic, supplemented by members of the Caprinae during the Early Upper Paleolithic. A complex mammoth fauna inhabited forest-steppe and steppe landscapes in the Khangai Mountains during MIS-3 and MIS-2.
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Levantine Middle Pleistocene blade industries
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The origin of Near Eastern Middle Pleistocene blade industries is discussed with reference to the Levallois reduction-technique. Special attention is paid to the Gesher Benot Ya'akov site, in Israel, where the Levallois technology is the earliest in the region (ca 800 ka BP). Whereas later Acheulean industries show no continuity with the Levallois tradition, the alternation of predominant Middle Pleistocene technologies indicates changing adaptation strategies caused by ecological conditions. Accordingly, the early appearance of the laminar technology in the Near East evidences local evolution rather than immigration. The major factors underlying this innovation were adaptation and the intrin sic development of the Levallois system. Laminar technologies, which are fi rst evidenced by certain Levantine sites even earlier than Gesher Benot Ya'akov, became widely distributed at the Acheulo-Yabrudian stage of the late Acheulean. A well-developed blade technology is demonstrated by the Amudian industry of Qesem, Israel, dating to 400–200 ka BP.
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Masks and Sculptured Human Heads in Early Neolithic Complexes of Northern Mesopotamia
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This study focuses on sculptural representations of human heads and faces and related sources from Northern Mesopotamia, dating to the 10th to early 8th millennia BC. Consideration is given to archaeological context, placement relative to other ritually meaningful objects and complexes, and to material traces of actions performed with them. The distribution of masks and separate sculptural and relief images of the human head, in Northern Mesopotamia in the Pre-Pottery Neolithic (PPN), is determined in its western and central regions during the Late PPNA, Early and Middle PPNB periods. The tradition of manufacturing such objects, like the custom of burying or otherwise ritually manipulating separate human skulls, had been practiced in the Levant at least since the Upper Epi-Paleolithic. Many PPN masks and sculptured heads were found in contexts resembling those relating to human crania (and sometimes postcrania) in ritual complexes. Ritual actions with human skulls and sculptural representations of human heads were apparently based on similar religious beliefs broadly aimed at the wellbeing of the community, its security, stability, and reproduction.
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