Raw material strategies of the Upper Paleolithic population from Malya Syya

The article presents the results of analyzing the raw material base and geological structure of the territory where a well known Upper Paleolithic site of Malaya Syya is located. This site is one of the rare cases when a Paleolithic culture was found in the mountain frame of the North Minusinsk Depression. The current research stage offers new opportunities for establishing the spatial ties of the population which inhabited the south of the Middle Siberia in the Paleolithic. Geological and petrographic analysis of the site, and analysis of raw materials and collection of artifacts showed the presence of two strategies for selecting stone raw materials. First strategy involved the use of local raw materials for producing tools and pigments. Second strategy implied the use of “exotic” raw materials (talcites), which were imported for producing non-utilitarian objects.