Anthropologie最新文献

This article presents the results of the typological analysis of Early Upper Paleolithic non-geometric microliths from the Kostenki site cluster. A relationship between certain types of microlith and the age of different Kostenki sites was established. Based on stratigraphic correlation and radiocarbon dating, three chronological groups corresponding to three stratigraphic units are distinguished: a) the Lower Humic Bed, b) the level of the Campanian Ignimbrite tephra, and c) the upper part of the Upper Humic Bed. In all three groups, non-geometric microliths show similarities with Aurignacian sensu lato types and demonstrate some local features. In this study, criteria for the definition of some microlith types are reconsidered, and certain subtypes are distinguished for the first time. The suggested model of diachronic change of Early Upper Palaeolithic microlithic technologies at Kostenki allows comparison with contemporaneous sites in Southwestern France and Eastern Europe.

The Byki complex on the left bank of the Seim River (Desna basin) comprises eight sites, including multilayer ones, differing chronologically and culturally. The dates of key cultural layers are from 21 to 18 thousand BP. Questioning the use of local landscapes by prehistoric people and the reasons for repeated occupation of the area required a paleolandscape reconstruction. For this purpose, a set of methods were applied on a research scale from local (archaeological excavation) to regional (within a radius of several kilometres). The site's position in the regional topography has been studied using GIS methods, for the nearest encirclement of Byki a detailed digital terrain model was constructed. The near-surface stratigraphy was studied by ground penetrating radar (GPR) and magnetic survey, coring and archaeological excavations. This resulted in the creation of a map of natural depressions layout and their three-dimensional visualisation. It was found that by the time people first arrived, the natural relief was a combination of sand dunes and rounded thermokarst sinkholes. The sediments filling the sinkholes indicate the over-watered conditions made them unsuitable for human habitation (the cultural layers do not extend into the sinkholes), but they could provide a source of water. Most of the sites are found on top of an aeolian barkhan. The distance maps showed that the sites’ location provided the best visibility in all directions. Thus, this atypical location of Byki sites at significant distances from the nearest rivers can be explained by a combination of several advantages: location on the edge of a valley in terms of distance vision, local topographic diversity that provided comfortable living conditions and possibly a water supply.

The paper aimed at estimating the significance of paleoenvironmental changes in the process of the prehistorical human dispersals over Northern Eurasia, and particularly his penetration to the High Latitudes. As follows from the recent investigations, the northeastern part of Europe appears to be settled earlier than it has been supposed until recently. The traces left by the early man in the European Arctic may be dated to 40 000 to 35 000 years BP (43096 to 40159 cal. BP). The Siberian North was colonized in the Late Pleistocene. The materials recovered from the Yanskaya site (71°N) provide evidence of human survival in the Arctic regions of Eastern Siberia at least ca.28 to 27 ka BP (32780 ± 660 to 31170 ± 520 cal. BP). Valleys in the middle reaches of the Lena and Aldan rivers were populated after 24 000 yr BP (28165 cal. BP). We may identify two main directions in the High Latitude colonization between 40 000 to 12 000 yr BP [43096 to 13907 cal. BP], namely along the basins of the Kama and Pechora rivers in Eastern Europe and by way of the Lena and Yana basins in Northern Asia. West Siberia and the Northeastern Asia were actively populated at the Late Glacial time; the same period was marked by the first human penetration from the Eastern to Western hemisphere (from the Chukchi Peninsula to Alaska) by the ‘Bering Land Bridge’. The northernmost regions of the East Siberia, such as Taymyr Peninsula and the New Siberian Islands (Zhokhov Island), were inhabited in the early and middle Holocene.

The study of the settlement of the Central European Plain during the Late Glacial time has until recently been hampered by the predominance of the view that large glacial lakes were widespread in the upper Volga basin during the Valdai (Weichselian) glaciation, which prevented settlement of vast territories and population migration to the ice-free Fennoscandia from the east and south-east. According to the glacial lake concept, the lowlands along the Dubna River – a tributary of the Volga River – were occupied by the vast Tver Lake in the Late Valdai epoch, the presence of which was previously thought to exclude the possibility of its development until the Pleistocene-Holocene boundary, when the process of deglaciation finally drained those areas. To test this concept, special geoarchaeological studies were undertaken, which included, in addition to traditional archaeological research, the study of the development history of landscapes by methods of geology and geomorphology. It was established that fluvial rather than lacustrine environments dominated the area during the Late Valdai Ice Age, which made possible its occupation by prehistoric population. In support of that, radiocarbon ages of around 15,500 cal BP were obtained from the artifacts corresponding the initial settlement of the Dubna Lowland. The pioneers were populations of the Resseta culture with the East Gravettian traditions. Later, in the Early Holocene, there is a transformation of the Ressetian industry into the Zadnepilevo culture. Seasonal migrations of the Ressetian and Zadnepilevian population are recorded not only by materials of the East European Plain, but also the Scandinavian Peninsula, where the monuments of “eastern impulse” are represented.

The aim of our research was to single out projectile implements basing on results of complex use-wear analysis of artefacts from two sites of the Shan-Koba culture – the bottom layer of Zamil’-Koba 1 and layer III of Alimovski Naves. The first one belongs to the early stage of the culture, and the second – to its later phase. Comparison of our results with available experimental data, and analysis of the environment and faunal assemblages of the sites made possible to define hunting weapons and outline hunting strategies of the population of the Shan-Koba culture. Bow and arrows was the main hunting weapon. Transverse arrowheads played leading role while the share of oblique arrowheads decreased from early to late phases of this culture. Stabbing arrowheads and composite projectiles were known but played insignificant role.

Kapova cave is one of three Upper Paleolithic parietal caves in the Southern Urals. As a result of research during 2009–2022, a new stratum of different cultural remains of human activities in a decorated underground cavity was discovered, dating back to 19.6–16 ky cal BP. Analysis of traces of prehistoric practices in Kapova cave reveals various structural concentrations of human activity (wall paintings, archaeological objects) and sequences of motions inside the cave, which were largely related to the morphology of the underground cavity. This archaeological context sheds light on some of the prehistoric aggregations of human groups, whose activity was not only related to the decoration of the walls.

Abstract, geometric, and also ornamental images which could not be directly decrypted are one of plots of iconic portable art of Eastern Europe. This type of pictorial activity emerges already during the early phase of the Upper Paleolithic simultaneously with figurative art. Development of iconic and ornamental art could be traced in the Russian Plain during the whole Upper Paleolithic epoch. It was mostly widespread during the Middle (25–21,000 BP) and Late (20–12,000 BP) phases of the Upper Paleolithic. Geometric art existed side by side with tradition of realistic engravings of humans and animals during the Gravettian time, and it entirely displaces the latter after the Late Glacial maximum. The article systematizes data about ornamental geometric images of the center of the Russian Plain dealing with regional and chronological peculiarities of this type of art. Basing on the data of technical and morphological analyses the author suggests two criteria for differentiation of ornaments in portable art of the Gravettian and Epigravettian time: 1. Presence/absence of organic combination of geometric and realistic elements in one image; 2. Character and technique of zonal ornamentation of the surface of artefacts with complicated shape. Geometric ornamentation was engraved on the whole surface of artefacts with complicated shape with obligatory preliminary mark-up, and also use of one or several base lines for creation of such images at Epigravettian sites. Elements composing one geometric design could be engraved on artefacts with complex volume during different episodes, and consequently without preliminary preparation.

The Kostenki-Borshchevo archaeological area on the river Don (Voronezh region/Russia) represents a unique concentration of Palaeolithic sites – from the earliest Upper Palaeolithic to the Late Palaeolithic. The remains of 60 settlements were found in the habitation levels of 21 sites (many of which are multi-layered). There is a rare concentration of dwellings and burials from the Palaeolithic period: the dwellings were found at 8 sites (Kostenki 1 (layer I), 2, 4, 8, 11, 13, 19, 21) and probably at three other sites (Kostenki 3, 9, 15). At sites where, undisputed dwellings have been found, certain other features have sometimes been found as well, in connection with which several questions have arisen concerning their interpretation as dwellings. Burials were found at six sites (Kostenki 1 (layer III), 2, 12, 14, 15, 18). This article is devoted to a review of the diversity of the structures of dwellings and of the funerary rites as reflected in the archaeology, because they provide the best indication of the ideas held by various groups of people about the structure of the world – the world of the living and the world of the dead.