Results of archaeological survey at the Karama Early Paleolithic site

This article presents new evidence from the Early Paleolithic Karama site in the Anui River valley in the Northwestern Altai. For clarifying stages in formation of different generations of sediments and determining their geomorphological position in the structure of the valley, three exploration pits were made down the slope in the direction of excavation pit 1 on the terraced surface where excavation pit 2 in Karama was located. Three units of sediments were unearthed. New lithological and stratigraphic data were obtained, suggesting that stages in formation of the erosion socle in excavation pit 1 and socle in excavation pits 2 and 3 were separated by powerful accumulation of loose material at the lower levels of the ancient valley of the Anui River, which was replaced by downcutting to about 25 m above the modern river level. A fragment of bedrock socle was observed in the vicinity of Karama, 4 km higher up the valley, at a relative height of 22 m. It was overcovered, through clear erosion contact, by a unit of boulder-gravel deposits with reddish-brown filling, which underwent obvious alluvial sorting. The level of this socle generally corresponds to the socle level in excavation pit 1 of Karama at the relative mark of 25 m. These results reliably complement the model describing the structure of complexes located above the floodplain and on terraces, and levels of valley-side planation surfaces in the Anui River valley, and clarify confinement of excavation pits 1 and 2 of Karama to the corresponding stages in valley development. Excavation works resulted in finding Early Paleolithic stone artifacts in two upper pits along the slope, which in their morphology and petrographic composition were identical to the Early Paleolithic evidence from excavation pits 2 and 3 at Karama.