The Iskra cave as the site illustrating the terminal Upper Paleolithic in the Northwestern Altai

The authors analyze the lithic artifacts complexes that have been recovered from the Iskra cave site in the middle reaches of the Anui River. The artifacts from this site demonstrate the following diagnostic features. The artifacts fashioned on sedimentary rocks (aleurolite and sandstone) include flat and slightly concave large cores as well as small blade cores. The tool kit includes side-scrapers, backed small blades with blunt tips, end-scrapers, various retouched spalls, notches, denticulate tools, tools with signs of hewing and bone pendants with openings. The noted variety of artifacts is close to that recognized in the assemblages that were recovered from the Sartanian deposits in Kaminnaya and Denisova Cave sites and Ust-Karakol-1 and Anui-2 open-air sites. All these artifacts illustrate the terminal stage in the development of lithic industry in the Altai during the Paleolithic.