Radiocarbon Chronology of the Siberian Paleolithic | SpringerLink

Journal of World Prehistory, Vol. 12, No. 1, 1998

Radiocarbon Chronology of the Siberian Paleolithic Yaroslav V. Kuzmin1,3 and Lyobov A. Orlova2

We have compiled 462 C-14 determinations for 120 Paleolithic and Mesolithic sites from Siberia and the Russian Far East. The Mousterian sites are dated to ca. 46,000-28,500 BP. The Middle-Upper Paleolithic transition dates to ca. 43,300-28,500 BP. Although there are a few earlier sites, most of the Upper Paleolithic sites are dated to the time interval between ca. 34,000 BP and 10,000 BP. The earlier Upper Paleolithic stage is characterized by macroblade technology and is radiocarbon-dated to ca. 34,000-20,000 BP. The earliest microblade technology occurs in the late stage of the Upper Paleolithic, dated to ca. 23,000-20,000 BP, but the majority of microblade sites is dated to ca. 20,000-11,000 BP. The Final Paleolithic (Mesolithic) sites date to ca. 12,000-6000 BP. At ca. 13,000-11,000 BP, the earliest Neolithic appeared in both the Russian Far East (Amur River basin) and the Transbaikal. The Paleolithic-Neolithic transition occurred ca. 13,000-6000 BP KEY WORDS: radiocarbon dating; cultural chronology; Paleolithic; Siberia; Russian Far East.

INTRODUCTION Radiocarbon (C-14) dating of the Siberian Paleolithic began in the late 1950s, with the establishment of the first radiocarbon facilities at the Academy of Sciences of the USSR in both Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) and Moscow (Butomo, 1965). In 1969, the first radiocarbon laboratory in Sibe1

Pacific Institute of Geography, Far Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Radio St. 7, Vladivostok 690041, Russia. Institute of Geology, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Universitetsky Pr., 3, Novosibirsk, 630090, Russia. 3 To whom correspondence should be addressed. Fax: +7 (4232) 312-159. e-mail: [email protected]. 2

1 0892-7537/98/0300-0001$15.00/0 © 1998 Plenum Publishing Corporation

2

Kuzmin and Orlova Table I. Numbers of C-14 Dates from Siberian Paleolithic Sites by Laboratory

AAa

GINb

GXC

IGANd

IMe

LEf

MAGg

KRILh

SCANi

17

78

8

12

28

119

15

8

143

aNSF-Arizona

AMS Facility, University of Arizona, Tucson. bGeological Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia. cGeochron Laboratories, Krueger Enterprises, Inc., Cambridge, MA, USA. dInstitute of Geography, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia. eInstituteof Permafrost Studies, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Yakutsk, Russia (inactive). fInstitute of the History of Material Culture, Russian Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg, Russia. gNortheastern Complex Research Institute, Far Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Magadan, Russia. hInstitute of Forestry, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Krasnoyarsk, Russia (inactive). iInstitute of Geology, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk, Russia.

ria was established in Novosibirsk by Dr. Lev V Firsov at the Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Siberian Branch of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (Firsov et al., 1985). This facility soon became the center for developing the radiocarbon chronology of the Siberian Paleolithic. Among other laboratories making the largest contributions to the study of the C-14 chronology of the Siberian Paleolithic were the radiocarbon facilities in both the Geological Institute, Moscow, and the Institute of the History of Material Culture, St. Petersburg (Table I). Both of these institutions belong to the Russian Academy of Sciences. In addition to the Laboratories listed in Table I, a few measurements were made by the following facilities: Radioisotope Direct Detection Laboratory, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, B.C., Canada (Lab Code RIDDL, inactive, three dates); Institute of Geo chemistry, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia (Lab Code Mo inactive; three dates); St. Petersburg State University, St. Petersburg, Russia (Lab Code LU, three dates); Institute of Radiogeochemistry of the Environment, Ukraine Academy of Science, Kiev, Ukraine (Lab Code Ki, two dates); Center for Isotope Research, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands (Lab Code GrN, two dates); Ail-Union Research Institute of Submarine Geology and Geophysics, Riga, Latvia (Lab Code Riga, inactive, one date); and Institute of Evolutional Morphology and Ecology of the Animals, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia (Lab Code IEMEZH, one date). The aim of this paper is to improve the existing radiocarbon chronology of the Paleolithic of Siberia. This is important not only for understanding the timing of human colonization of this vast territory, which covers 12,000,000 km2, but also for modeling the peopling of the New World (e.g., Powers, 1996, p. 229).

Radiocarbon Chronology of the Siberian Paleolithic

3

MATERIALS AND METHODS Materials

The area under study may be subdivided into two parts: Siberia proper and the Russian Far East. In American geography textbooks they are often described together (e.g., Simmons, 1990). Russian geographers, however, separate these two regions because of significant differences in climate and vegetation (e.g., Suslov, 1961). The territory of Siberia belongs to the Arctic Ocean drainage basin, and the Russian Far East belongs to the Pacific Ocean drainage basin (Fig. 1). The 120 Siberian Paleolithic sites dated by C-14 are located in the following nine geographic areas: (1) western Siberia (4 sites/5 dates), (2) Altai Mountains (11/56), (3) Sayany Mountains (4/13), (4) Yenisei River basin (25/103), (5) Angara River basin (12/24), (6) Lena River basin (Lena River headwaters, 11/29; Yakutia, 13/77), (7) Transbaikal (19/83), (8) northeastern Siberia (Kolyma River basin, Kamchatka, and Chukotka; total, 14/57), and (9) Russian Far East (Amur River basin and Primorye Province; total, 7/15) (Fig. 1). In the late 1970s, there were approximately 95 C-14 dates from Siberian Paleolithic sites (Abramova, 1984b). In 1997, we have 336 dates older than 10,000 radiocarbon years (BP), and 126 dates ranging between 10,000 and 6000 BP, a total of 462 determinations (Table II). Such significant progress became possible due to the intensification of C-14 dating of the Siberian Paleolithic in the 1980s and 1990s (Firsov et al., 1985; Orlova, 1995, 1998). This review contains the most complete list of C-14 dates from Siberian Paleolithic sites published thus far. Previous English summaries of Siberian Paleolithic C-14 chronology (e.g., Powers, 1973; Michael, 1984; Goebel, 1993) have been incomplete due to publication delays and to the lag in the dissemination of information originally published in Russia. The sources for the C-14 data listed in Table II are papers published previously, mostly in Russian, and our own data. Geographic coordinates have been estimated as decimal values (i.e., 130.50 is equal to 130°30'). The material dated includes charcoal, uncarbonized wood, humates (i.e., humic acids derived from paleosols and sediments in general), and bone (collagen). For the chemical pretreatment of charcoal, wood, and soil humates, standard procedures were used (cf. Taylor, 1987). For the collagen extraction, a combination of the methods of Longin (1971) and Arslanov (1987, pp. 137-143) was used. The remains of humic acids insoluble in NaOH were removed using the centrifuge, in addition to dissolution of the mineral part of the bone in weak HC1 (Arslanov, 1987, p. 143). L. D. Sulerzhitsky

4

Kuzmin and Orlova


5

(personal communication, 1997) uses a cold HC1 solution (at a temperature of about 3-5°C) to separate the collagen from the mineral part of the bone, without significant loss of collagen. The quality of collagen extracted is usually very high. Previous experience with C-14 dating of bone collagen in Siberia (cf. Mamonova and Sulerzhitsky, 1989) shows that such dates are generally reliable. Our sources of archaeological information are the most recent essays and reviews published in both Russian and English (Abramova, 1984a, 1989; Krushanov, 1989; Derevianko, 1983, 1990; Michael, 1984; Larichev et al., 1988, 1990, 1992; Vasiliev, 1992, 1993; Konstantinov, 1994; 1996; Kuznetsov, 1994; Weber, 1995; Powers, 1996; West, 1996). For the correlation of cultural and climatic events, we used the paleoenvironmental data from several recent studies of the Late Quaternary of Siberia (Kind, 1974; Velichko, 1984, 1993; Arkhipov, 1984; Arkhipov et al., 1986a, b; Arkhipov and Volkova, 1994).

Methods The liquid scintillation counting (LSC) (or conventional) technique is the most widely used in the dating of the Siberian Paleolithic (95% of the dates); all the Russian laboratories use this technique. Since the early 1990s, the accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) technique has been applied to samples from Siberia and the Russian Far East (Goebel, 1993; Kuzmin et al., 1994; 1997); we now have 22 such dates (5% of the total). By counting C-14 atoms directly, the AMS technique allows us to date very small samples (total carbon, up to 0.1 mg) (Donahue, 1995). The LSC method requires at least several grams of sample, and sometimes up to several kilograms (for bone older than 20,000 BP, for example). Thus, AMS looks more promising for dating particular events such as short-term occupations, from which few organic materials remain. In most cases, the samples for LSC dating were collected from hearths or particular spots. Sometimes, due to insufficient primary information presented by archaeologists in the submission forms, it is hard to understand the nature of the samples. For AMS dating, samples have been collected from both hearths and small charcoal-enriched spots. Goebel (1993, p. 137) pointed out that the reliability of the conventional dates (LSC) run for the earliest Siberian Paleolithic sites prior to the 1990s is doubtful: " . . . The reliability of these conventional dates is questionable, due to a number of deficiencies, including the limited range of conventional 14C methods, potential contamination, and the use of pooled samples and other inferior materials for dating." However, while

6

Kuzmin and Orlova Table II. Radiocarbon Dates for Paleolithic Sites in Siberia Site No., name, layer

Lati- Longitude tude (°N) (°E)

14

C date (BP)

Lab. No.

Mater- Ratial ing Reference

Mousterian Altai Mountains

1. Kara-Bom,

50.10

86.40 >42,000

51.67

>44,400 AA-8894A 84.00 43,300 ± 1,500 RIDDL-722

AA-8873A

Bone

2 Goebel,

layer 1

1993

"

2. Okladnikov Cave, layer 7 ", layer 3

40,700 ± 32,400 ± 37,750 ± 33,500 ± >16,210

" ", layer 2 ", layer 1

"

4.

5.

RIDDL-720 RIDDL-721 RIDDL-719 RIDDL-718 SOAN-2458

51.75

Cave " (Upper Paleolithic?) 51.20 Denisova Cave, layer 21

28,470 ± 1,250 SOAN-2459 83.84 >25,000 SOAN-785 31,510 ± 2,615 SOAN-3219

" " "

2 " 2 " 2 .. 2 " 2 Orlova,

" "

" "

GX- 17599

>34,700

"

39,390 ± 1,310 SOAN-2489 >37,235 SOAN-2504 46,000 ± 2,300 GX-17602

51.10

"

"

2 2

"

1 Orlova,

"

"

1998 84.70 35,140 ± 670

;/

", layer 11 ", entrance, layer 9 Ust-Karakol 1, layer 6

2 2

1995

" 3. Strashnaya

1,100 500 750 700

" „

84.70 29,860 ± 355

SOAN-2488

Charcoal Humates

" Bone Charcoal

5 Goebel, 1993

3 Orlova, 1995

3 " 2 " 5 Goebel, 1993

SOAN-3358

"

5 Orlova,

SOAN-3359

"

5

SOAN-2861

Bone

in press

"

29,720 ±360

"

Sayany Mountains

6. Mokhovo 2

54.40

86.60 30,330 ± 445

2 Orlova, 1995

Transbaikal

7. Arta 2, layer 4 51.25

112.40 37,360 ±2,000 LE-2967

Charcoal

4 Kirillov

Bone

2 Orlova,

Charcoal

5 "Reitlin,

& Kasparov, 1990

Upper Paleolithic Western Siberian Lowland

8. Mogochino

51.75 83.52 20,150 ± 240

9. Tomsk

56.48 84.92

SOAN-1513

1995 18,300 ± 1,000 GIN-2100

1979


7

Table II. (continued) Site No., name, layer

10. Volchiya

Lati- Longitude tude CN) (°E)

14

C date (BP)

54.63 80.25 14,450 ± 110

Lab. No. SOAN-111

Material Rating

2

Abramova, 1984b

"

2 5

" "

Griva

"

14,200 ± 150

11. Cheroozierye 56.23 73.50 14,500 ±500 2, layer 2 Altai Mountains 1. Kara-Bom, layer 2a ", layer 2b

"

SOAN-78 GIN-622

50.10 86.40 43,200 ± 1,500 GX-17597 43,300 ± 1,600 GX-17596 33,800 ± 600 GIN-5935

Reference

Bone

Charcoal Charcoal

" "

5 5 5

Goebel, 1993

" Derevianko

et al., ", layer 2c

34,180 ± 640

GX-17595

"

5

"

33,780 ± 570 32,000 ± 600

GX-17594 GIN-5934

"

"(?)

Bone

5 1

", layer 2d

38,080 ± 910

GX-17592

" 12. Kara-Tenesh

30,990 ± 460 GX-17593 50.10 85.90 42,165 ± 4,170 SOAN-2485

" 13. Malyi

31,400 ± 410 SOAN-2486 49.80 86.30 33,350 ± 1,145 SOAN-2500

Yaloman

Charcoal

" " Bone Charcoal

5

" Derevianko et al., 1990 Goebel,

193 5 5 2 5

" Orlova, 1995

"

Derevianko

et al. ,

51.10 84.70 31,410 ± 1,160 SOAN-2515

"

5

" "

31,345 ± 1,275 SOAN-2869 30,460 ± 2,035 SOAN-3260

" "

5 5

"

29,900 ± 2,070 IGAN-837

"

5

5. Ust-Karakol

1990 Goebel, 1993

1, layer 5

1990 Orlova, 1995

" Orlova, 1998 Derevianko

et al., ", layer 4

26,305 ± 280

SOAN-3261

Konstantinov, 1994

" » »

Yakutia

82. Avdeikha

58.22 113.65 9,200 ± 390

IM-471

Charcoal

4

Kuzmin, 1994

20

Kuzmin and Orlova Table II. (continued)

Site No., name, layer

Lati- Longitude tude (°N) (•E)

14

C date (BP)

Lab. No.

Material Rating

Reference

127.08 10,300 ± 50

LE-920

„

5

Mochanov, 1977,

9,450 ± 300 9,400 ± 90 8,900 ± 200 9,000 ± 110 7,000 ± 90 6,570 ± 100 6,380 ± 80 60.10 133.08 9,180 ± 80

IM-455 LE-896 IM-456 LE-832 LE-895 LE-910 LE-894 LE-763

" " " •< "

5 5 5 5 5 5 5 4

" .. " " " " n „

H

9,045 ±210

IM-243

", layer 22

8,520 ± 80

LE-762

", layer 21 ", layer 20

8,440 ± 80 8,370 ± 80

LE-801 LE-761

", close to layer 20 ", layer 19 ", layer 18 ", layer 17

8,500 ± 160

LE-740

8,290 8,360 8,260 8,060

± ± ± ±

80 80 80 70

LE-760 LE-747 LE-745 LE-746

8,110 7,920 7,830 7,430 6,750

± 80 ± 60 ± 150 ± 60 ± 70

LE-744 LE-743 LE-742 LE-741 LE-698

± ± ± ±

LE-650 LE-697 LE-678 LE-798

83. Ust-

58.67

Timpton, layers 5-6 ", layer 5b ", layer 5a

" ", layer 4b ", layer 4a ", layer 3b

" 104. Belkachi, layer 23

" ", ", ", ", ",

layer layer layer layer layer

15 14 13 12 10

" ", layer 9 ", layer 8 105. Sumnagin 1, layer 36

"

", layer 34 ", layer 24 ", layer 20

" 106. UstChirkuo, layer 12

6,720 6,250 5,900 58.30 125.30 6,200

6,100 6,280 6,360 6,900 5,960

50 60 70 60

± 50 ± 60 ± 60 ± 50 ± 60

62.70 110.00 8,350 ± 150

GIN-296 LE-797 LE-796 GIN-295 LE-795 IM-476

n

« Wood

n Charcoal Wood Charcoal

„

Wood

" " Charcoal Wood

» » " Charcoal

" » » Wood

" n " •> „ ,,

4 5

Kostukevich et al. 1980 Mochanov, 1977

4 5

a a

5

„

4 4 4 5

" " » „

4 4 4 4 5

» » " " i,

5 5 5 4

" " 44,000 and ca. 46,000 BP, respectively. Other Mousterian sites have C-14 dates ranging from ca. 43,000 BP, at Okladnikov Cave, layer 7, to ca. 28,500 BP, at Okladnikov Cave, layer 1. It should be stressed that Okladnikov Cave contains nothing but Mousterian and there is no evidence of Upper Paleolithic occupation (Derevianko, 1990, pp. 38-44; Derevianko and Markin, 1992). Thus, the Siberian Mousterian existed roughly over the peroid from ca. 46,000 to 28,500 BP (Table II).

Mousterian-Upper Paleolithic Transition The transition from Mousterian to Upper Paleolithic in Siberia was characterized by significant changes in stone tool technology and, probably,


31

by the replacement of a Neandertal population by anatomically modern people. At present, the Altai Mountains are the only region in Siberia where sites with stratigraphic sequences of both Mousterian and Upper Paleolithic layers have been both excavated and C-14 dated. The most representative site is Kara-Bom, with a C-14 date for the Mousterian layer (No. 1) of >44,400 BP (AA-8894A). The Upper Paleolithic layers (Nos. 2a-d) date from 43,300 + 1600 BP (GX-17596) to 30,990 ± 460 BP (GX17593) (Table II). At Ust-Karakol 1, the Mousterian in layer 6 (Derevianko et al, 1990, p. 70; Derevianko and Markin, 1992, pp. 203-204) is dated to 29,860 + 355 BP (SOAN-3358) and 29,720 ± 360 BP (SOAN-3359). Layer 5, with the earliest Upper Paleolithic tool assemblage (Derevianko, 1990, pp. 45-49), is dated between 31,410 ± 1160 BP (SOAN-2515) and 29,900 ± 2070 BP (IGAN-837) (Table II). At Kurtak 4 in the Yenisei River basin, a layer with three Levallois flakes, at a depth of 10.5 m, yielded a C-14 date of > 35,000 BP (SOAN2805) on charcoal-enriched sediments (Drozdov et al., 1990, pp. 92, 108). A charcoal sample from the same layer gave a date of 31,650 ± 520 BP (LE-3352) (Vasiliev, 1992, p. 346). These artifacts might possibly be associated with the Mousterian-Upper Paleolithic transition. Other very early Upper Paleolithic sites in Siberia and the Russian Far East have yielded the following dates: > 39,000 BP (AA-8880A) for Makarovo 4, 38,460 ± 1100 BP (SOAN-1625) for Kandabaevo, 34,860 ± 2100 BP (SOAN-1522) for Tolbaga, >35,300 BP (AA-8893A) for Varvarina Gora, and 32,570 ± 1510 BP (IGAN-341) for Geographical Society Cave (Table II). These results seem to show the temporal-spatial coexistence of the latest Mousterian and the earliest Upper Paleolithic in Siberia. It is quite clear that in the southern part of Siberia, the Altai Mountains, and possibly the Transbaikal, C-14 dates for the Mousterian and Upper Paleolithic really do overlap. This is not likely to result from postdepositional contamination, since we have several charcoal series for "young" Mousterian sites (for example, Ust-Karakol 1, layer 6, ca. 29,800 BP) and for "old" Upper Paleolithic sites (for example, Kara-Bom, layers 2a-2d, ca. 43,000-31,000 BP). These findings contradict Goebel's (1993, p. 154) suggestion that the Middle-Upper Paleolithic transition occurred at about 45,000-40,000 BE Instead, the Mousterian-Upper Paleolithic transition seems to have occurred gradually in Siberia and the Russian Far East, within the time interval ca. 43,000-28,500 BP. On the other hand, there are no known interstratified Mousterian and Early Upper Paleolithic assemblages from Siberia, and this means that our conclusion about the coexistence of the two remains preliminary. In addition, the regional Late Pleistocene stratigraphy in the Altai Mountains is

32

Kuzmin and Orlova

not well developed (Zolnikov et al, 1998), and we cannot use pollen and C-14 data from adjacent sections to evaluate the reliability of the Kara-Bom and Ust-Karakol 1 dates. For the moment, we can say only that there is no visible evidence of redeposition at either site (Goebel et al., 1993; Derevianko et al, 1995).

Upper Paleolithic Abramova (1989, pp. 242-243) subdivided the Upper Paleolithic of Siberia into four stages using a climatostratigraphical approach (see Climatostratigraphic Background, above). The first stage corresponds to the end of the Karginian Interglacial and includes sites such as Kara-Bom, Malaya Syia, Makarovo 4, Varvarina Gora, Geographical Society Cave, and the lower layers of Ust-Kova, Sosnovy Bor, and Tolbaga, The second stage dates to the beginning of the Sartan Glaciation and comprises Achinsk, Tarachikha, Afanasieva Gora, Igeteisky Log, Malta, Buret, the middle layer of Ust-Kova, and the lower layer of Krasny Yar. The third stage corresponds to the second part of the Sartan Glaciation and contains Mogochino, Golubaya 1, Makarovo 2, Verkhne-Troitskaya, Ezhantsy, Dyuktai Cave, the upper layers of Ust-Kova and Krasny Yar, and the Afontovo and Kokorevo cultures. The fourth stage is dated to the end of the Sartan Glaciation and the beginning of the Holocene and encompasses western Siberian sites (Chernoruchie 2 and Volchya Griva) and the Bedarevo culture of the Sayany Mountains, as well as Sroskti, Maima, Kokorevo 3, Aechka, Sosnovy Bor (layer 4), Verkholenskaya Gora, Makarovo 1, Berelekh, Kurung 1, Novy Leten B, Maly Kunalei, Oshurkovo, Studenoye (lower layers), and Ustinovka. These four stages may be combined into two periods: the Early Upper Paleolithic, with macroblade industries (Abramova's stages 1 and 2), and the Late Upper Paleolithic, with microblade industries (Abramova's stages 3 and 4). Microblade cores first appear at some second-stage sites such as Igeteisky Log 1 and Krasny Yar (Abramova, 1989, pp. 199-202). The importance of the presence or absence of typical wedge-shaped and other microblade cores for the Siberian Upper Paleolithic has been repeatedly emphasized (e.g., Abramova, 1989, p. 241). Thus, we are considering two principal types of stone tool assemblages: pre-micoblade (or macroblade) and microblade. Early Upper Paleolithic The Early Upper Paleolithic is widely distributed in Siberia and the Russian Far East, including the Altai and Sayany Mountains, the Yenisei,


33

Angara, and Upper Lena River basins, the Transbaikal, and the Maritime Province (Fig. 1). The earliest occurrences are Kara-Bom (layers 2a-2d), Makarovo 4, Kandabaevo, Tolbaga (layer 4), and Varvarina Gora (layer 2) and are dated to ca. 43,300-34,900 BP (Table II). Most sites with macroblade industries in the Altai Mountains, the Angara River basin, and the Transbaikal fall within the interval 34,000-21,000 BP. In the Altai Mountains, besides Kara-Bom, there are several sites with well-defined macroblade assemblages, such as Kara-Tenesh, Malyi Yaloman, Ust-Karakol 1 (layers 2-5), Ust-Karakol 2, and Anyi 2. In the Angara River basin, typical macroblade industries occur at Ust-Kova (lower and middle cultural layers), Voenny Hospital, Malta, and Buret. After the first C-14 date from Malta [14,750 ± 120 BP (GIN-97)], it was suggested, on geological grounds, that the real age of the site should be older (Tseitlin, 1979; Abramova, 1984a, p. 315). Two more recently released dates, of ca. 21,000 to 20,700 BP, are very close to the date for Buret, ca. 21,200 BR Since Malta and Buret had previously been combined into one culture (e.g., Abramova, 1989), we can now infer that the age of the Malta site is about ca. 21,000 BR Macroblade assemblages are also very characteristic of the Transbaikal sites, including Kandabaevo, Tolbaga, Kamenka, Varvarina Gora, Kunalei (layer 3), Podzvonkaya, Priiskovoye, and Arta 2 (layer 3). In some areas, we do not have many well-excavated early Upper Paleolithic sites. In the Sayany Mountains, Malaya Syia has a radiocarbondated macroblade industry (Table II). The single site in the Yenisei River basin, Kurtak 4, lacks macroblades. In the Lena River headwaters, only Makarovo 3 and 4 are early Upper Paleolithic, and in the entire Russian Far East, the early Upper Paleolithic is represented only by the small assemblage from the Geographical Society Cave, dated to ca. 32,500 BR There are several sites with uncertainties in the series of C-14 dates, as well as discrepancies in the identifications of microcores and microblades. In the Transbaikal, in Kunalei, layer 3, dated to ca. 21,100 BR reexamination of the microblade-like cores (Abramova, 1989, p. 323) showed that the assemblage actually contained only macroblades (Konstantinov, 1994, pp. 60-66). Wedge-shaped cores and microblades have been reported to be absent from layer 7 of Ushki 1 (e.g., Dikov, 1996), but both Abramova (1984a, p. 327, p. 346) and Powers (1996, p. 234) have stated that while wedge-shaped cores are missing, microblades do actually occur in layer 7. The average C-14 age for this layer is ca. 14,100 BP (Table II), by which time typical microblade industries were already present in the Transbaikal, Yakutia, and the Russian Far East (e.g., Kuzmin, 1994). The age of Kukhtui 3 (Northeastern Siberia), which does not have C-14 determinations, has been estimated as about 10,000 BP based on pollen data (Mochanov and Fedoseeva, 1996); there are no microblades. At present,

34

Kuzmin and Orlova

there is no reasonable archaeological explanation for the absence (or apparent absence) of microblades from the terminal Upper Paleolithic of Ushki 1 (layer 7) and Kukhtui 3. There are four C-14 dates for Malaya Syia (Table II). Three of these, SOAN-1286, SOAN-1287, and AA-8876, are quite close (ca. 34,500-29,500 BP) and were run on bone; the single charcoal date, SOAN-1124, is much younger (ca. 20,300 BP). Charcoal is a much more reliable material for dating than bone (Kuzmin and Tankersley, 1996), and at this time, it is not known what caused the large discrepancy (ca. 10,000 C-14 years) in this series of dates. The archaeological contents of Malaya Syia are also uncertain. Abramova (1989, p. 182) has noted that, in one publication, Larichev (1976, p. 18) reported only large blades and knives made on blades, but elsewhere (Larichev, 1978, p. 108) he also mentioned microcores. Abramova (1989) suggests that the tool assemblage is closer to a macroblade industry and is older than both the Kokorevo and the Afontovo cultures, which contain numerous well-defined microblades and wedge-shaped microcores. The most recent publication on Malaya Syia lists microcores along with prismatic and cubic cores and retouched blades (Larichev and Kholushkin, 1992). For the moment, the position of Malaya Syia in the general sequence of the Siberian Paleolithic remains unclear. The C-14 date for the upper layer (3) of Tolbaga, ca. 15,100 BP, is younger than expected based on the occurrence of macroblades. This discrepancy may be due to contamination by modern soil humates (Konstantinov, 1994, p. 56). The stone inventory from layer 3 looks almost identical to that from layer 4, which is dated to ca. 34,900-25,200 BP, and neither layer contains microblades. Early-Late Upper Paleolithic Transition

The appearance of wedge-shaped microcores and microblades is assumed to give a rough indication of the boundary between the early and the late stages of the Upper Paleolithic in Siberia (Abramova, 1989). The most promising areas for establishing the date of their appearance are the Yenisei and Angara River basins, the Lena River headwaters, and the Transbaikal. In areas such as the Altai and Sayany Mountains, it is hard to place this event because of a "gap" in the C-14 sequences from ca. 21,000-18,000 to 12,000-11,000 BP. In the Yenisei River basin, the earliest evidence of microblade manufacture comes from several sites, including Ui 1, layer 2, for which the earliest date is ca. 22,800 BP; Kashtanka 1, layer 2, with dates of ca. 21,800-20,800 BP (Drozdov et al., 1990); and Novoselovo 13, layer 3, with


35

a date of ca. 22,000 BP (Svezhentsev et al., 1992). In the Angara River basin, there are two sites relevant to the transition from macroblade to microblade techniques. For the multilayered Ust-Kova site, there is a new date for the upper cultural layer, with microblades, of 19,540 ± 90 BP (SOAN-1900) (Orlova, 1995). A single microcore was reported at Igeteisky Log 1 (Abramova, 1989, pp. 199-201), but Medvedev and his co-workers (1990, pp. 50-52) do not mention microcores in the Igeteisky Log 1 assemblage, and they stress that all the cultural material was redeposited. The earliest C-14 dates for Igeteisky Log 1 are ca. 24,400-23,700 BR In the Lena River headwaters, the C-14 date for the earliest microblade assemblage comes from Kurla 3, layer 2 (Koltsov and Medvedev, 1989), with an age determination of 24,060 ± 5700 BP (SCAN-1397). The large standard deviation (24%), resulting from the very small amount of charcoal (less than 1 ml of benzene for LSC was synthesized), makes this date less than reliable. In the Transbaikal, the Early-Late Upper Paleolithic transition may be placed at ca. 16,500 BP on the basis of the date for UstMenza 2, layer 21 (with microblades) (Konstantinov, 1994). Thus far, the transition from macroblade to microblade industries seems to have occurred in Siberia ca. 23,000-20,000 BP However, in Yakutia the C-14 age of the earliest Dyuktai culture site with microblades, UstMil 2, is much older: ca. 35,400-30,000 BP (Mochanov, 1977). The excavation of Ust-Mil 2 was completed two decades ago, so, to investigate this discrepancy, we use both C-14 and pollen records from the site (Savvinova et al., 1996) to correlate the paleoenvironmental record with independent pollen and C-14 records from other Late Pleistocene locations in Northeastern Siberia (Kaplina and Lozhkin, 1984; Giterman, 1985). Based on pollen data presented by Sawinova and others (1996), the lower, precultural part of the Ust-Mil 2 section is characterized by coniferous forests and has a C-14 date of 35,600 ± 900 BP (LE-965) (Mochanov, 1977); the amount of arboreal pollen is about 11-39%, In the upper part of the UstMil 2 section, with Dyuktai-culture tools and dated to ca. 35,400-23,500 BP, the amount of arboreal pollen decreases sharply and does not exceed 5-10% of total pollen and spores. According to Kind (1974), the period ca. 33,000-30,000 BP (the Konoschelye cooling) was characterized by climatic deterioration with treeless landscapes in central and northern Siberia. Two other major intervals within the Karginian, ca. 41,000-35,000 and 30,000-24,000 BP, were characterized by warm climates and considerable forest elements in the regional vegetation. Thus, if the Ust-Mil 2 section with Dyuktai artifacts dates to ca. 35,400-23,500 BP, then the pollen spectra should reflect a mostly warm environment with considerable amounts of arboreal pollen. Unfortunately,

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Kuzmin and Orlova

this part of the section is characterized by the prevalence of spores and very low amounts of arboreal pollen. The most complete Karginian-Sartan sedimentary sequence in Northeastern Siberia is the Molotkovsky Kamen section in the Kolyma River basin (Kaplina and Lozhkin, 1984; Giterman, 1985) (Fig. 1). This section preserves all the paleoenvironmental events within the Karginian Interglacial, including climatic ameliorations at ca. 42,000-35,000 BP [the Khomus-Yuruakh warming (Kaplina and Lozhkin, 1984) or the Malaya Kheta warming (Kind, 1974)] and 30,000-24,000 BP [the Kuranakh-Sala warming (Kaplina and Lozhkin, 1984) or the Lipovka-Novoselovo warming (Kind, 1974)], with a cold event between them at ca. 35,000-30,000 BE The distinctive feature of the warm events is the sharp increase in arboreal pollen content compared with the cold event. During the warm intervals, arboreal pollen makes up 40-60% of the total amount of pollen and spores. The climatic deterioration ca. 35,000-30,000 BP is characterized by a decrease in arboreal pollen to