Topical Issues of the Asian Paleolithic

ASIAN PALEOLITHIC ASSOCIATION INSTITUTE OF ARCHAEOLOGY AND ETHNOGRAPHY OF THE SIBERIAN BRANCH OF THE RUSSIAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCES V.P. ASTAFIEV STATE PEDAGOGICAL UNIVERSITY IN KRASNOYARSK MINISTRY OF CULTURE OF KRASNOYARSK PROVINCE N.F. KATANOV STATE UNIVERSITY OF KHAKASIA TUVA STATE UNIVERSITY TOPICAL ISSUES OF THE ASIAN PALEOLITHIC Proceedings of the International Symposium in Krasnoyarsk, July 6–12, 2012 Organizers and Editors A.P. Derevianko, N.I. Drozdov Novosibirsk Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography Press 2014 УДК 902/904(0)+902/904(5) ББК T4(0)22+T4(5)22 T 75 The collection is affi rmed for publication by the Academic Council of the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography Executive editor E.V. Akimova Research works have been carried out under the fi nancial support of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation that was held by the Altai State University; project 2013-220-04-129 entitled “The Earliest Human Settlement of Siberia: the origins and development of cultures in North Asia”. The papers are published in author’s version Topical issues of the Asian Paleolithic: Proceedings of the International T 75 Symposium that was held in Krasnoyarsk on the 6th – 12th of July, 2012. Novosibirsk, Publishing Department of the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography SB RAS, 2014. – 187 p. ISBN 978-5-7803-0238-4 The collection contains the proceedings of the 5th annual meeting of the Asian Paleolithic Association (APA) and the 17th International Symposium “Suyanggae and her Neighbours” that were held in V.P. Astafi ev State Pedagogical University in Krasnoyarsk. The papers were presented by the experts in archaeology, physical anthropology and paleoecology from Russia, China, Japan, Korea, USA, Belgium, France, Ukraine, Belarus and India. The papers highlighted the topical issues of archaeology, ethnology and paleoecology of Eurasia. The book is directed toward students of archaeology, anthropology and related scientifi c disciplines. УДК 902/904(0)+902/904(5) ББК T4(0)22+T4(5)22 ISBN 978-5-7803-0238-4 © Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences © V.P. Astafi ev State Pedagogical University in Krasnoyarsk E.V. Akimova Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences V.P. Astafi ev Krasnoyarsk State Pedagogical University, Krasnoyarsk, Russia THE MULTILAYER LATE PALAEOLITHIC SITE LISTVENKA (Middle Yenisey) Listvenka site was discovered in 1982 and has been studied since 1983 by a group of archaeologists of the Krasnoyarsk Pedagogical University and the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography of the Siberian Department of the Russian Academy of Sciences under the supervision of N.I. Drozdov (1983–1985) and E.V. Akimova (1986–1997). Geology and geomorphology were studied by S.A. Laykhin, V.P. Сheha, the conclusions on the palinology of the section were made by V.G. Kolzova, the faunal collection was defi ned by N.D. Ovodov, N.V. Martinovich, S.B. Vasiliev, A.A. Guliaev, A.N. Mo- tuzko, A.F. Sanko, V.U. Ratnikov. The site is situated in the southern Divnogorsk suburb, on the right bank of the Lisvenka-Zarechnaya river 600 metres below its mouth (this river fl ows into the Yenisey river). The river crosses the terrace complex formed by Yenisey on the convex right side of the valley and fl ows into Yenisey little below the Krasnoyarsk HES dam. In 50s, while the HES building the site was greatly destroyed, the local relief changed in a high degree, so the terrace correlation can be represented only approximaly only in the site region. The site belongs to the fragment of the 40 metres terrace which is 23 metres above the Listvenka river level. The reason of it is a steep slope of the river bed in the crossing Yenisey terraces area. Its fragmentary situation by mouth Listvenka river part doesn’t allow to attribute its belonging to Yenisey or to its tributary. Quartery deposits of the site part are devided into two strata. The fi rst is represented with detritus-pebble deposits two metres depth and evidently is the remains of the river Listvenka bed alluvy. At the point of contact debris and native rocks there is the 10–15 metres wide linear reduction. It is fi lled with sandy-allevrit sediments of the second stratum, which involves Late Palaeolithic cultural horizons. The strata is dated to Sartarian (Late Wurm). The faunal assemblage is characterized by wooded-tundra and partially- wooded steepe forms mixing, while the last one dominates. There are mam- moth bones at the base of the section only (19 c.l.), isolated tusk fragments and tusk hand-made articles are observed above it. The correlation of bison 3 and reindeer remains fi xed in all cultural layers is signfi cant. So, reindeers bones dominate always in the deposits at the 1–8, 16–18 c.l. levels. Evidently, bison was a dominating object of hunting in 9–14 c.l. A single layer with horse bones dominance is the 15A c.l. Listvenka site is one of a few Late Palaeolithic sites in Siberia, where great number of short-lived sites remains are fi xed in the ranges of the local site part. About 25 cultural layers similar in genesis, features of occurence and character of fi lling are distingished at the monument at present (accepted level numbering basis consists of 1–19 c.l.). One of distinclive Listvenka site features was the appearence of the recur- rent sites at the same place, i.e. in a small ravine (perhaps, in the dried bed of the ancient channel). This fi ture pvedetermined the hearth leaning towards one line, i.e. towards the bottom of the ravine. A compact refi tting product fragments lay-out, abundance of bone remains in anatomical order, stable horizontal artefact occurence, availability of the household constructions show the predominance in situ materials. Local deformations took place because of criogenial distructions in the form of the ice veins, the cracks, made by thraw and rain waters, mole holes, the blowings and so on. More ancient artefacts gathering and secondary exploitation of them without repreparation promoted the vertical artefact dislocation. The Listvenka site is distinguished by hearth character of the cultural deposits as a vast majority of Yenisey Late Palaeolithic monuments. A cultural layer can be traced as a dense seam of soot full of fl akes, chips, bone fragments and on which surface larger artefacts and animal bones occur and complex houshold construction remains are fi xed depending on the excavated part of the site. Another demonstrates faint marks of dotted horizon with a few artefacts without visible changes in soil colour. Such cultural layer “poorness” shows a peripheral position of the excavated site part more often than a short life of the site. There are no reasons to speak about any narrow economical direction of the separate cultural according to the Listvenka site excavations. Each re- current site existed as a complex polifunctional organizm and involved many types of economical activitiec evidently. The analysis of the archaeological material makes to speak of fi ve trans- formations of archaeological cultures at the site. The highest group of the culture layers (1–4) has preserved only on a small area. Archaeological material is a few and does’t form stable series. Large cores (biplatform cube-shaped bifront and monofront with adjacent platforms) are intendent for producing of blade spalls and fl akes medium in size. Pseudowedge microcores are characterized by different modifi cations of a counter-front and smooth rightlateral retouched platform. The vast majority of tools is produced on fl akes (often on fl at pebbles) with scaled or procumbent retouch of one or both of faces. Small scrapers (Fig. 1, 5, 8, 9), side-scrapers and bifaces too (Fig. 1, 6), chisel-shaped fl ake tools, piece escaille type (Fig. 1, 7), chopper-pushplanes, knife-biface, a drill and borers on large pebble spalls (Fig. 1, 1) consist the tool kit collection. Bone inven- 4 Fig. 1. Listvenka. Works 1984–1992. C.l. 2: 1 – roller, 2 – scraper, 3 – knife-shaped tool – biface; C.l. 4: 4, 5, 8, 9 – scrapers, 6 – drill, 7 – chisel-like tool; C.l. 9: 10 – scraper, 14 – recloir; C.l. 10: 11, 15 – points, 12, 13, 16 – burins. tory is a perforator on a large bison bone spall, a needle fragment, an original cupshaped tusk product (2 c.l.). Marked bladeness characterizes stone inventory of cultural layers 5–13 and 15A. Knapping techique determines producing of suitable blanks, so cores on boulders are only monoplatform monofronts with segment-shaped platforms and fl at couter-fronts. Wedge-shaped microcores are mostly classical micro- forms with bifacial surface treatment, a marked keel and a crest. Specifi cal distinction is a left-lateral retouched platform. 5 Features of the basic blank, i.e. blade, determined the dominance of dorsal edge and unifacial retouch. Stone inventory consists of the following artefact categories: points with edge and unifacial treatment (Fig. 1, 11, 15), central and side maltifacetted burins as usial and combined often (Fig. 1, 12, 13, 16), push-planes and planing knives, end-scrapers and round scrapers (accounting scrapers on fl akes) (Fig. 1, 10), perforators and borers with point made on the nat- ural blade projection, chisel-shaped tools are few, large in size and produced on spalls from cores and tool fragments. Different pebble tools are numerous: ham- mer-stones, choppers, with longitudinal and transverse working edge position. The bone inuentory is marked: needles, notched tools made of horn and tusk accounting those ones which have stone insets, awls, points, a penetration made of bird bone, a pendant in a form of a sitting bird, serie of original products of undetermined function (for ex., it’s a massive tusk product which belongs to a category of so-called a “chip baton” with 3 oval holes) (Fig.

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