Initial stage of the Early Upper Paleolithic of northern Mongolia: archaeological horizon 3 (excavation pit 2) of the Tolbor-21 site (evidence of excavations in 2016-2017)

This article discusses the basic features of reduction technology and typological composition of the toolkit at the initial stages of the Early Upper Paleolithic using the assemblage from archaeological horizon 3 (excavation pit 2) at the Tolbor-21 site in Northern Mongolia, excavated in 2016 and 2017. For establishing the processes at the boundary of IUP andEUP, this assemblage was compared with assemblage from archaeological horizon 4 at the same site, which belonged to the final stage of the Initial Upper Paleolithic (41,000-42,000 calBP). The main cultural units of the initial stages of the Upper Paleolithic were located within lithological layer 3. Radiocarbon dates for horizon 3 (39,000-40,000 calBP) indicate that the chronological distance from the overlying horizon was insignificant. There is a notable continuity between these complexes, manifested in general principles of selecting raw materials, focus on blade production, identical flaking technique, and common features of the toolkit. The main differences can be attributed to the techniques of core reduction and morphology of the resulting products. The principal trend of changes in the complexes of lithologic layer 3 can be formulated as a transition to different technique of blade production while preserving specific aspects of culture, as evidenced by maintaining both the structure of the toolkit and presence of common distinctive types of tools. This variant of cultural changes, observed at other sites in the Tolbor Paleolithic area, corresponds to the model of gradual transformation of the Initial Upper Paleolithic tradition.