New data on the structure of Pleistocene deposits of the Early Paleolithic Karama site

The article provides new research materials on the Early Paleolithic Karama site in the Anui River valley in the northwest Altai. To clarify information about the history of the valley development at the stages immediately preceding the formation of deposits of excavation 1, reconnaissance excavation 7 was laid in the instrumental part of the ledge of the terraced surface whereon excavation 2 is located, downhill towards excavation 1, in the transition zone from a flat surface area to an erosion-denudation slope. In the excavation, under a pack of loess-like loam of brown-fawn color with a thickness of about 2 m to a depth of 1.2 m, a thickness of coarse-grained sediments with a red-coloredfiller was uncovered, similar to layer 7 in excavation 2. For the first time, the presence of limestone boulders with smoothed edges and faces, as well as massive inclusions of limestone rubble in the sediments overlying this layer, was noted in layer 7 of Karama. Based on the hypsometric position of excavation 7 and lithological and stratigraphic data, the formation of these deposits is most likely associated with a separate independent stage in the development of the Anui valley, timed to the geochron between the time of precipitation formation of excavation 1 and excavation 2. Moreover, pebble products of early Paleolithic appearance were found in red-colored boulder-block deposits-a scraper with a straight longitudinal blade and a natural rim, a tool with a spike-shaped protrusion, and a chopper with a straight blade contour. These archaic pebble tools are identical in their morphological features and petrographic composition (spherulite effusions) to the Early Paleolithic finds from the Karama excavation 2 and were most likely re-deposited downhill along with the blocky-gravelly material of layer 7.