@journal-aeae-en Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia

Paleoenvironment, the stone age. Рубрика в журнале - Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia

Публикации в рубрике (101): Paleoenvironment, the stone age

Novopetrovka III-an early neolithic site in the Western Amur basin and its chronology

Derevianko A.P., Nesterov S.P., Tabarev A.V., Alkin S.V., Uchida K., Kunikita D., Morisaki K., Matsuzaki H.

Статья

This article discusses the chronology of Novopetrovka III—a Neolithic settlement in the Western Amur basin, evaluated by the radiocarbon analysis of charred remains on pottery. The Novopetrovka culture as a whole, represented by Novopetrovka I–III and Konstantinovka sites, which had been excavated in the early 1960s, was dated to the 5th (possibly 6th) to early 4th millennia BC on the basis of the typology of the blade industry. The overview of data on prismatic blades manufactured by the pressure technique demonstrated that blade industries appeared in a vast territory of Eurasia in the Final Pleistocene to Early Holocene and, in certain regions, survived until the Chalcolithic. Therefore, they are only a rough guide to the relative chronology of the sites. In the 1990s, after the appearance of radiocarbon dates generated from samples of organic remains in temper and charred remains on pottery from Novopetrovka II, the culture was redated to 15.5–10.8 cal BP. A comparative analysis of new radiocarbon dates based on charred remains on pottery suggests that the age of Novopetrovka III is 9.0–9.5 thousand years. Because no changes were traced in the Novopetrovka sites over a long period of time, the chronological assessment of the Novopetrovka culture in toto and of its separate sites is problematic.

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Objects of portable art from a Bronze Age cemetery at Tourist-2

Basova N.V., Postnov A.V., Molodin V.I., Zaika A.L.

Статья

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Ocher in late Paleolithic contexts at the Kovrizhka IV site, the Baikal-Patom highlands (Eastern Siberia, Russia)

Tetenkin A.V., Demonterova E.I., Kaneva E.V., Henry A., Roux E.G.

Статья обзорная

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Oldowan or pebble-flake industry? Levantine Mousterian or Levantine middle Paleolithic?

Derevyanko A.P.

Статья научная

The emergence of Levallois technique and the origin of the Levantine Middle Paleolithic, addressed in my previous publication, are revisited. In the fi nal Acheulean of the Levant, the Acheulo-Yabrudian industry emerged and the blade technology was invented. On that base, the Levantine Middle Paleolithic originated. The terms “Oldowan industry” and “Levantine Mousterian” should be abandoned. The Oldowan industry was associated with Homo habilis, who had never migrated outside Africa. Because early Middle Paleolithic industries originated from the Acheulo-Yabrudian industry of the Levant, they should be referred to as Middle Paleolithic rather than Mousterian. The Mousterian was associated with H. neanderthalensis, whereas the industries of territories where Neanderthals had not migrated should be referred to as Middle Paleolithic. Neanderthal migrations resulted in the emergence of Mousteroid industries in Eastern Europe, Caucasus, Crimea, southern Siberia, etc. In Africa, a new taxon Homo heidelbergensis (H. rhodesiensis) originated ca 800 ka BP. Eventually, those humans migrated to the Near East, as evidenced by the Gesher Benot Ya'aqov site. Throughout the Middle Pleistocene, Near Eastern, primarily Levantine populations were involved in the sapienization process. By the early Upper Pleistocene, two sister taxa had apparently originated there: anatomically modern humans (Skhul, Qafzeh) and Palestinian Neanderthals (Tabun, Amud, Kebara). There was no radical change in Acheulean or Middle Paleolithic industries in the Levant that might suggest immigration from Africa or the adjacent territories of Eurasia. Anatomically modern humans associated with the Nubian Levallois industry migrated from Africa to Arabia ca 110 ka ago. They may have had short-term contacts with Levantine Middle Paleolithic populations, but archaeological evidence of acculturation is lacking.

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On the Cultural Geography of the Eastern Caucasus and Southern Caspian in the Mesolithic

Amirkhanov H.A.

Статья научная

This study focuses on the geography of the Mesolithic cultures of the eastern Caucasus and the current approaches to this topic. In the 1970s, the Caucasian Mesolithic was considered an amalgam of several archaeological cultures evolving in parallel. In the eastern part of that region, two archaeological cultures were described: Chokh and Trialeti. While no one questioned their marked specifi city vis-à-vis the cultures of western Caucasus, the similarities and differences between them have not been specifi cally addressed. In the 1990s, S.K. Kozłowski proposed merging Chokh and Trialeti with other Mesolithic cultures of the northern Zagros, Anatolia, the western Caucasus, the Crimea, the southern and eastern Caspian, and possibly the Central Iranian Plateau, into a single industry, which he termed “Trialetien”. This idea was based on approaches different from those used in establishing archaeological cultures. Therefore, the notion of the Trialetien was likewise novel. I believe that the former typological criteria underlying the typology of the southern part of the circum-Caspian area (Chokh, Trialeti, Balakhan) are still valid. Likewise plausible is the idea that in addition to the cultures mentioned above, the Southern Caspian archaeological culture must be established. All those local units, including Trialeti (in the traditional sense), are a group of related cultures, which I previously included in the “Southern Caspian Mesolithic area”.

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On the date of the Great Shigir idol

Chairkina N.M.

Статья научная

The Great Shigir Idol is the largest anthropomorphic wooden sculpture in the world, a unique work of Stone Age art, and a valuable source for reconstructing the material culture and worldview of the ancient population of Northern Eurasia. Although study of it began more than 100 years ago, a number of issues, such as the place of discovery, context, date, methods of exhibition, etc., remain controversial. This article analyses archival documents relevant to the location and time of discovery of the Great Shigir Idol, and on the accompanying finds. The results of a recent comprehensive study conducted by Russian and German archaeologists and scientists in 2014 are outlined. The focus is on the analysis of AMS radiocarbon dates, spanning a period from the Late Pleistocene (~10,500 cal BC) to the Late Mesolithic/Early Neolithic (~6000 cal BC). These dates show a considerable range of variation, and they disagree with those derived from the conventional radiocarbon dating in 1997. Paleogeographic and archaeological data from the Trans-Urals do not support the early (9600–9000 cal BC) estimates of the time of the idol’s creation, but rather correspond to later ones, derived from the AMS 14C analysis conducted in 2014. Therefore, it is necessary to continue the study of Mesolithic sites and paleoclimate of the Urals, determine the nature of primary peat formation at the Ural peatlands, and assess their age and that of the microremains of peat in early cracks in the idol, etc.

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On the interpretation of Stelae in the cult complexes of Northern Mesopotamia during the pre-pottery Neolithic

Kornienko T.V.

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Ornaments Made from Unio Shells in a Neolithic Burial at Ust-Aleika-5, Barnaul, Southwestern Siberia

Borodaev V.B., Kiryushin K.Y., Kuzmenkin D.V., Solodovnikov K.N.

Статья научная

The search for a Mongolian era cemetery at Ust-Aleika, Kalmansky District, Altai Territory, in 1982 revealed a Neolithic child burial, which was excavated. The funerary items included over 300 artifacts made of organic and inorganic materials, among them more than a hundred pendants made from fossil Pleistocene shells of Unio mollusks, which do not occur in the Ob basin at present. These thick-walled shells had been procured from the Kalistratikha I exposure on the left bank of the Ob. The pendants had been made according to a hitherto unknown technique: they are irregularly ellipsoid with segment-shaped longitudinal and transverse sections. The thickness of the shells allowed the artisans to use relief, which is diffi cult or impossible with shells of modern bivalves from the Upper Ob basin. Burial 2 at Ust-Aleika-2 dates to the middle or late 4th millennium BC. It belongs to the same cultural and chronological group as burials 1 and 5–9 at Solontsy-5, and a double burial at Bolshoi Mys (Itkul), excavated by V.I. Molodin in 1976.

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Paleoenvironmental Conditions of Neanderthal Habitation in the Altai: Chagyrskaya and Okladnikov Caves

Serdyuk N.V., Zazhigin V.S., Markin S.V., Kolobova K.A.

Статья научная

We explore the environments of the Sibiryachikha Neanderthals, who had migrated to the Altai at the end of MIS 4. Given that the territory was already populated by Denisovans, the key question is whether the choice of habitat was random (i.e., the immigrants occupied vacant ecological niches) or motivated by other factors. On the basis of published results relating to the study of small-mammal fauna and pollen analysis, the environments of Chagyrskaya and Okladnikov Caves during the Neanderthal habitation are reconstructed. Species of small mammals are viewed as biome members. To reconstruct the episodic transfer of mammalian remains between stratigraphic units, we used ordination statistics and compared the results with those of micromorphological and stratigraphic analyses of Chagyrskaya Cave. It was found that late Neanderthals of the Altai lived in similar environments, dominated by steppe and forest steppe landscapes. The choice of caves for habitation depended on several factors, the key ones being the availability of game and high-quality raw material for manufacturing tools. On the basis of the statistical analysis of small-mammal fauna and the stratigraphic and micromorphological analyses, we conclude that post-sedimentation processes in caves can include vertical transfer of animal remains, affecting environmental reconstructions.

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Paleolithic personal ornaments from Xiaogushan cave: the formation of early symbolism and its regional features in Northeast China

Zabiyako A.P., Junzheng W.

Статья

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Peculiarities of using 2D electrical resistivity tomography in caves

Olenchenko V.V., Tsibizov L.V., Osipova P.S., Krivoshapkin A.I., Chargynov T.T., Viola B.T., Kolobova K.A.

Статья

The effi cienc y of archaeological studies inside caves could be greatly enhanced by geophysical methods because of their potential for examining deposit structure and features. Application of those methods in caves entails a number of problems caused by limited space for measurements and the complexity of the surrounding medium’s structure as compared to above-ground measurements. In 2017, Selungur Cave in the Fergana Valley, Kyrgyzstan, was examined using electrical resistivity tomography. Because of the above concerns, in the course of the work the question of the reliability of the results arose. To clarify the issue, a numerical experiment was performed to assess the effect of the three-dimensional cave geometry on the results of a two-dimensional inversion. It was found that variations of cave geometry parameters result in unexpected false anomalies, and considerable errors in bedrock location and resistivity can occur. In the case of downward diverging cave walls, an accurate resistivity section can be obtained by using the inversion based on a two-dimensional model. Therefore, electrical resistivity tomography in caves with similar geometry can yield reliable resu lts concerning the shape of bedrock surface, the thickness of sedimentary layers, and size and position of inclusions such as fallen fragments of roof therein.

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Percussive-abrasive stone tools from Chagyrskaya cave: results of functional analysis

Seletsky M.V., Fedorchenko A.Y., Chistyakov P.V., Markin S.V., Kolobova K.A.

Статья научная

This article presents a comprehensive study of percussive-abrasive active stone tools from Chagyrskaya Cave, using experimental use-wear and statistical methods, supplemented by 3D-modeling. Experiments combined with use- wear analysis allowed us to determine the functions of these tools by comparing the working surfaces and use-wear traces in the Chagyrskaya samples with those in the reference samples. As a result, we identified 19 retouchers, four hammerstones for processing mineral raw materials, and one hammer for splitting bone, which indicates the dominance of secondary processing over primary knapping in the Chagyrskaya lithic assemblage. Using statistical analysis, we traced the differences in the dimensions of the manuports and lithics under study. These artifacts are a promising and underestimated source of information for identifying working operations associated with stone- and bone-processing; moreover, they can provide new data on the functional attribution of sites and the mobility of early hominins.

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Personal ornament production technology in the early Holocene complexes of western Central Asia: insights from Obishir-5

Fedorchenko A.Y., Shnaider S.V., Kolobova К.А., Krivoshapkin I., Krajcarz T., Romanenko M.E., Kyzy S.A., Abdykanova K., Taylor W.

Статья

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Reconstruction of extreme paleoclimatic events in northwestern Siberia using ancient wood from fort Nadym

Omurova G.T., Barinov V.V., Vaganov E.A., Myglan V.S., Kardash O.V.

Статья обзорная

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Results of radiocarbon dating of early burials in the Firsovo archaeological area, Barnaul stretch of the Ob

Kiryushin K.Y., Kiryushin Y.F., Frolov Y.V., Solodovnikov K.N., Schmidt A.V.

Статья

An especially noteworthy part of the Firsovo archaeological area is a group of early burials at the fl at-grave cemeteries Novoaltaisk-Razvilka, Firsovo XI, and Firsovo XIV. Nine radiocarbon dates have been generated for those cemeteries at various laboratories: two by the liquid-scintillation (LSC) method and seven using the accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) method. The dates were calibrated using OxCal version 3.10 software. Dates for the Chalcolithic Bolshoy Mys culture burials at Novoaltaisk-Razvilka and Tuzovskiye Bugry-1 burial 7 match the previously suggested ones (around 3000 BC). Certain Neolithic burials in the Altai differ from others in the position of the bodies (fl exed on the side). They were dated to the late 5th to the early 4th millennia BC by the AMS method. Burials belonging to the “cultural core” of Firsovo XI, then, fall within the Early Neolithic (68 % interval, 5710–5460 BC; 95 % interval, 5740–5360 BC). The date 9106 ± 80 BP (GV-02889), obtained for Firsovo XI burial 18, may be somewhat accurate, pointing to the Final Mesolithic or Early Neolithic. Both the date and the cultural characteristics of this burial (sitting position, abundant ocher) are accompanied by the craniometric distinctness of the male cranium (huge total size).

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Shulbinka Paleolithic site, Eastern Kazakhstan, revisited

Anoikin A.A., Pavienok G.D., Kharevich V.M., Kulik N.A., Taimagambetov Z.K.

Статья

This study revises the cultural and chronological attribution of the Shulbinka site, Eastern Kazakhstan, with reference to recent ideas of the Early Upper Paleolithic in northern Central Asia, including new sites dating to that stage (Tolbor-21, Ushbulak, etc.) and a representative series of absolute dates relevant to the site’s chronology. We describe the discovery of the site and principal fi ndings of excavations carried out more than 20 years ago, focusing on the comprehensive analysis of artifacts from Shulbinka, conducted in 2019. We demonstrate that the estimated age and the cultural attribution of the site disagree with earlier interpretations. Earlier claims about the presence of Levallois and Mousterian components in the primary reduction system appear poorly supported. The idea that artifacts from the site resemble those of the Early Upper Paleolithic is subjected to a critical inquiry. As it turns out, the closest parallels to this assemblage are found among the Final Upper Paleolithic industries of southern and central Siberia. Important traits include the combination of large cores for making fl akes, blades with edge-faceted and wedge-shaped microcores, and the predominance of end-scrapers and chisel-like tools. Few parallels can be found with industries of different cultural and chronological periods. Based on these analyses, we conclude that the site of Shulbinka dates to the Final Paleolithic. The absence of Final Middle Paleolithic or Early Upper Paleolithic markers makes the site irrelevant to debates around the origin of the Upper Paleolithic in the region.

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