ARCHAEOLOGY, ETHNOLOGY & ANTHROPOLOGY OF EURASIA Archaeology Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia 41/1 (2013) 78–88 E-mail: [email protected]

78 THE SIBIRYACHIKHA FACIES OF THE ALTAI MIDDLE

M.V. Dobrovolskaya1 and A.V. Tiunov2 1Institute of Archaeology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Dm. Ulyanova 19, Moscow, 117036, E-mail: [email protected] 2A.N. Severtsov Institute for Ecology and Evolution, Russian Academy of Sciences, Leninsky Pr. 33, Moscow, 119071, Russia E-mail: [email protected]

THE OF OKLADNIKOV , ALTAI: ENVIRONMENT AND DIET BASED ON ISOTOPIC ANALYSIS*

The discovery of a Mousteroid in the northwestern Altai represents a major ¿ nding in Eurasian Paleolithic studies. Isotopic analyses of bone collagen of late Western European Neanderthals have repeatedly indicated that they were extremely carnivorous. However, no corresponding information was previously available for the Neanderthals of the Altai. With this in mind, an isotopic study was conducted to assess the diet of the inhabitants of . Collagen was extracted from seven well preserved bone samples of adults and children and 13ɋ/12ɋ and 15N/14N ratios were calculated. The į13ɋ content suggests that all individuals were members of a local trophic chain based on plants of the moderate climatic zone. However, the į15N content demonstrates that their trophic level was high. These ¿ ndings suggest that the lifestyle of Neanderthals in the northwestern Altai was similar to that of the late European Neanderthals. Both evidently subsisted by hunting large herbivores. Keywords: Neanderthals, Altai, isotopic analysis, paleoecology, dietary reconstruction.

Neanderthals of the Altai: , and of a new archaic hominin population Common versus local features shown to have contributed to the modern gene pool in certain regions, make the Altai a focal area in Large-scale archaeological research in the northwestern the history of the genus Homo and the species Homo Altai has resulted in new findings that are highly sapiens. The discovery of a Mousteroid industry in the relevant to many issues of . The northwestern Altai is a major archaeological ¿ nding discovery of an Early Upper Paleolithic industry, (Derevianko, Markin, 1992; Derevianko, 2007; apparently associated with anatomically modern Derevianko, Markin, Zykin, 2008). The sequencing of the mitochondrial genome of the Okladnikov Cave *Supported by grants from the Russian Foundation for hominins, and the morphological study of their skeletal Basic Research, “Environment and Diet of Paleolithic Humans remains demonstrate unambiguously that the people Based on Isotopic Analysis” (Project No. 10-06-00447-a) and “Biological Changes in Pleistocene Homo in the Context of who lived there at the end of the Middle Paleolithic Eurasian Migrations” (Project No.11-06-12009-o¿ -m-2011). were Neanderthals (Turner, 1990; Krause et al.,

© 2013, Siberian Branch of Russian Academy of Sciences, Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.aeae.2013.07.007 M.V. Dobrovolskaya and A.V. Tiunov / Archaeology, Ethnology and Anthropology of Eurasia 41/1 (2013) 78–88 79

2007; Buzhilova, 2011; Mednikova, 2011). These three individuals from Vindija, (42–38 ka BP), discoveries have extended the assumed distribution two from Feldhofer, (39 ka BP), and two range of those hominins 2000 km to the east. from El Sidron, northern (49–35 ka BP). The After the publication by J. Krause et al. it became results suggest that about 50 ka BP a demographic clear that the local southern Siberian Mousteroid turnover occurred, resulting in an abrupt reduction tradition, named Sibiryachikha (the former name of of the population size. Following this Okladnikov Cave), was associated with Neanderthals. event, only a small sub-population with a low genetic Whether “classical” Neanderthals lived in southwestern variation survived in Europe. Several millennia Central Asia, as the mtDNA analysis of Teshik-Tash before the arrival of anatomically modern humans, appears to suggest (Krause et al., 2007), is a matter of the only inhabitants of Europe were descendents of debate. M. Glantz, based on an earlier morphological this genetically consolidated subgroup. While the study (Glantz, Viola, Chikisheva, 2004), questions genetic variation in earlier Neanderthals was high the presence of standard Neanderthal apomorphies and comparable to that in modern man, it decreased in either Obi-Rakhmat or Teshik-Tash children. abruptly after the turnover. This, however, concerned According to Glantz (2010), they might be hybrids only European Neanderthals but not Asian ones. between local humans and migrants from the north Regrettably, the preservation of DNA in Near Eastern or east. Whatever the case, the reliably documented Mousterians is poor, and without them the pattern is presence of Neanderthals in southern Siberia cannot incomplete. be questioned. In line with these findings, the appearance of Recent paleogenetic data have a direct bearing Neanderthals in the northwestern Altai is regarded on assessments of the spatio-temporal distribution as a relatively short-term local episode. According to of Neanderthals in Eurasia. Based on the analysis A.P. Derevianko, about 50 ka BP, a small Neanderthal of the hypervariable portion of mtDNA, V. Fabre, group associated with a -like lithic tradition S. Condemi, and A. Degioanni (2009) tested several migrated to Gorny Altai. Although this region has scenarios explaining between-group variation in been studied in detail, only two such sites are known Neanderthals. The sample included 12 individuals thus far – Okladnikov Cave and Chagyrskaya. Both dated to various periods of the contain habitation horizons with a Mousteroid (100–29 ka BP) and inhabiting areas from western industry – Sibiryachikha (Derevianko, 2011: 49). Spain (El Sidron) to the Altai (Okladnikov Cave). In sum, dramatic changes occurred in the All except the individual are no earlier Neanderthal community, resulting in an abrupt than 50 ka, so the conclusions basically concern late decrease and redistribution of the genetic variation. Neanderthals. Factors behind those changes are not clear. At present, Fabre et al. concluded that three groups of a broad range of methods can be used to examine Neanderthals existed – western, eastern, and southern. the issue. Some of them are aimed at reconstructing The eastern group includes Neanderthals from Teshik- the lifestyle, environment, and adaptations of local Tash and Okladnikov Cave, the southern group, those Neanderthal groups. from Spain, , and the Balkans (El Sidron, Monte Lessini, and Vindija). The Mezmaiskaya individual falls in the western group. Fabre et al. believe that Environmental approaches the three groups were not isolated and maintained to the study of Neanderthal dispersals contacts. The conclusions made by Fabre et al. concur with Peculiarities of the Neanderthal physical type have the results of another paleogenetic study conducted been traditionally regarded as adaptations to European by L. Dalen et al. (2012). According to these ¿ ndings, landscapes and to the increasing harshness of climate there were two Neanderthal subgroups. The first over the millennia. In recent years this paradigm included individuals from Scladina, (ca has been challenged. For example, results of the CT 100 ka BP); Teshik-Tash (ca 70 ka BP); Valdegoba, scanning and 3D reconstruction of Neanderthal nasal northern Spain (ca 48 ka BP); Okladnikov Cave, the sinuses suggest that they are relatively no larger than northwestern Altai (ca 40 ka BP); Mezmaiskaya, the in average modern Europeans (Rae, Koppe, Stringer, northwestern Caucasus (ca 36 ka BP); and Monte 2011), implying that the ef¿ ciency of warming the Lessini, Italy (ca 50 ka). The second group comprises inhaled air was likewise no higher. Download English Version: https://daneshyari.com/en/article/1034572

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