Archaeological Research in Asia最新文献

Despite the distribution of known rock art in Iran showing a main concentration in central and western Iran, research activities undertaken in the very last decades led to the identification of sites in eastern Iran as well. In 2018 a new rock art site was discovered close to Ariyeh, Khorasan Razavi province, NE Iran. Here we present a case report on these newly found petroglyphs that are now in imminent danger due to recent vandalism. According to the represented iconography, its features, style, and patina, it seems that the Ariyeh rock art was produced over a long chronology, from the late Prehistory to the Islamic period. The discovery of the petroglyphs of Ariyeh has strong implications towards the understanding of the relationships among the different sites and their use, function, and meaning, in order to understand cultural connections occurred between the Iranian plateau and the surrounding areas over the millennia.

This paper presents Karaoba, a 4th-2nd centuries BCE Sarmatian burial complex in the Kostanay Region of northwestern Kazakhstan, which exists on the very eastern margins of Sarmatian cultural influence. The undercut burial style is common in the southern Urals and western Kazakhstan, but rare in this region; Karaoba is one of the few examples of its presence this far east. Preliminary findings from the burial within Kurgan № 3 suggest that the individual was a male member of tribal nobility as interpreted through associated ceramic styles, gold objects, and a semi-complete horse skeleton. In all, Karaoba represents one of the most eastern expansions of Sarmatian cultural influence which offers new insights into their geographic range and subsequent cultural expansions.

The Indonesian island of Sulawesi, located in the ‘Wallacean’ biogeographical zone at the axis of human migration between the super-continents of Sunda and Sahul, has been linked to many research questions relating to the early movements of humans in the region between the landmasses of Asia and Australia. From an archaeological perspective, South Sulawesi is one of the most intensively investigated parts of Indonesia, although much about the early human story in this region remains unknown. While Pleistocene assemblages are scarce, South Sulawesi contains sites with deposits >50,000 years old, along with rock art of a broadly similar antiquity. Mid-Holocene assemblages reveal a regionally unique technocomplex known as the Toalean. However, knowledge of how these two cultural periods are related has been obscured by a gap in the archaeological record between c.20,000–10,000 years ago. This gap has prevented us from understanding the origins of major developments in stone tool technologies, environmental adaptations, and changes in material culture. Cemented archaeological deposits adhering to cave walls, known as breccias, may prove the solution for researchers interested in these poorly understood time periods. Samples taken from archaeological breccias for radiocarbon dating have shown that the deposits currently missing from the archaeological record can still be found attached to cave walls. These breccias contain archaeological deposits that have been consolidated by calcite precipitation and have remained attached to the walls of caves and rockshelters, while the majority of uncemented deposits were removed from the site by erosion or physical action. The identification of these ‘time capsules’ affirms environmental conditions did not restrict nor prevent occupation or site formation in South Sulawesi during the early Holocene period, and confirms archaeological breccias are a valid source of archaeological data and should be examined to a greater extent in the future. This paper identifies these missing archaeological deposits by dating material from archaeological breccias at the site, Leang Bulu Bettue, in the Maros Regency of South Sulawesi. It suggests that archaeological breccias are a valid and important source of information for consideration in future research.

The analysis of 107 obsidian samples collected in the course of the archaeological investigations carried out from 2009 to 2019 by the Georgian-Italian expeditions in Eastern Georgia in the provinces of Shida Kartli (Natsargora, Aradetis Orgora and Okherakhevi) and Kakheti (Tsiteli Gorebi 5) allowed us to confirm the existence of two contrasting obsidian procurement patterns in the region. Virtually all the samples (56 out of 57) from the province of Shida Kartli, west of the present capital Tbilisi, regardless of their site of origin and of their date, which varies from the late 4^th to the early 1^st millennium BC, originate from a single general source (i.e., the outcrops of the Chikiani volcano near lake Paravani in southern Georgia). On the other hand, the samples from the early 5^th millennium site of Tsiteli Gorebi 5 in the province of Kakheti, close to the present border of Azerbaijan, originate from seven different volcanoes located in Armenia (Gegham, Syunik, Gutansar and Tsaghkunyats), in southern Georgia (Chikiani), and in eastern Turkey (Sarıkamış region and Yağlıca Dağ). They thus outline for Kakheti a more complex multisource procurement pattern, already familiar from other sites of the same region, as well as of the neighbouring area beyond the Georgian/Azerbaijani and Georgian/Armenian borders, which deserves being further investigated in the future.

This article examines the formation processes of combustion features at the Orkhon 7 Paleolithic site in central Mongolia, employing a new multifaceted approach that combines spatial analysis with computer learning and micro-charcoal analysis. We analyzed material from excavations conducted in the 1980s (Archaeological Horizon 3 in Pits 2 and 3) and carried out a spatial analysis. We also studied the distribution of macro-charcoal remains in samples taken from a 2019 excavation profile. The size-sorting hypothesis test allowed separating sub-horizons impacted by natural sorting of material. Spatial patterns were studied using k-means clustering and unconstrained clustering. Artifact assemblages associated with traces of combustion represented by decrepitate soil and charcoal lenses in both Pits 2 and 3 are characterized by high percentages of cores and shatter produced as the by-products of core reduction. Macro-charcoal analysis of the upper part of the stratigraphic column indicates that the presence of fire is not related to archaeological material found in proximity. These data, as well as paleoclimatic reconstructions and known analogies drawn from neighboring regions, indicate natural, rather than anthropogenic traces of combustion at the site.

One of the fundamental lines of rock art research is chronological attribution of images. State-of-the-art methodology includes a set of direct and indirect approaches aimed at correlation the imagery with specific archaeological cultures or at least at definition of the chronological boundaries.

The highlands of Eastern Pamir (Tadjikistan) is known by a very few rock art sites among which the Shakhty rock-shelter located at the height of 4200 m above sea level representing a very unique hunting scene which is created in an archaic naturalistic style which has no direct parallels. It was preliminary attributed to the Stone Age by its discoverer V. A. Ranov at the beginning of the 1960s. A taxonomic identification of zoomorphic figures from Shakhty was not clear. The main hypothesis proposed two options: brown bear or wild boar. The species definition could be a chronological marker in correlation with data on paleofauna and paleoenvironment in the region.

The present study focuses on indirect dating of the Shakhty rock-shelter rock art through the determination of the taxonomic affiliation of zoomorphic figures and correlation with data on the fauna composition and paleoclimate of the Eastern Pamir in the Pleistocene and early Holocene.