Kurchum workshop: a new Paleolithic site at the Southern Altai

The Paleolithic problematics of the Southern Altai (Eastern Kazakhstan) was started to develop in 1948. Found in the region Paleolithic objects were dated to Middle - Upper Paleolithic, excluding limited Early Paleolithic findings from the Kozybai locality. Two areas with exposed artifact concentrations were found in the western part of Narym ridge in 2015 - Kurchum-1 and -2. Kurchum-1 is situated in small U-shape valley, which fronts a Bukhtarma reservoir and rimmed by residual red bed outcrops. Kurchum-2 is located in the high slope surfaces closer to hard rock outcrops. Sequence of the test pits and the cleansing allows determining the three-membered structure of the cross-section. The basal red bed (layer 3) can characterize the Pliocene Pavlodar or Vtorushkinskaya set, and overlying strata (layer 2) - Pliocene Ust-Ubinsk set, the upper boundary of which is dated to 1,8 ma. The recent soil overlays (layer 1). It is fair to assume that included the archaeological material Pleictocene deposits were erosed and artifacts were removed and exposed. The lithics from the both areas are illustrative of workshops at the outcrops. It contains the asynchronous artifacts, including a quartzitic handaxe, the high wind-eroded artifacts with bifacial treatment, that evidence the presence of Lower Paleolithic industries at the site. The further study of the Kurchum will let to define the earlier time when human occupied the Southern Altai.