Bryn Mawr College Scholarship, Research, and Creative Work at Bryn Mawr College Anthropology Faculty Research and Scholarship Anthropology 1979 Toward a New Outline of the Soviet Central Asian Paleolithic V. A. Ranov Richard S. Davis Bryn Mawr College,
[email protected] Let us know how access to this document benefits ouy . Follow this and additional works at: http://repository.brynmawr.edu/anth_pubs Part of the Anthropology Commons Citation Ranov, Vadim A. and Richard S. Davis. "Toward a New Outline of the Soviet Central Asian Paleolithic." Current Anthropology 20, no. 2 (1979): 249-270. This paper is posted at Scholarship, Research, and Creative Work at Bryn Mawr College. http://repository.brynmawr.edu/anth_pubs/3 For more information, please contact
[email protected]. CURRENT ANTHROPOLOGY Vol. 20, No. 2, June 1979 ? 1979by The Wenner-GrenFoundation for Anthropological Research 0011-3204/79/2002-0004$02.25 Towarda New Outline of the Soviet CentralAsian Paleolithic' by V. A. Ranov and R. S. Davis SOVIET CENTRAL ASIA is a vast, extremelycontinental terri- (1953a) pioneeringeffort some 25 years ago. Movius's work tory,some 2,400,000km2 in all, consistingof the arid Turan was of great significancefor Old World prehistorians,par- depressionand a portionof the CentralAsiatic highlandsin- ticularlyfor the Middle Paleolithic. Good summarieshave cludingthe Pamir-Alai and Tien Shan ranges.It includesTurk- more recentlybeen publishedin Russian by Okladnikovand menistan,Uzbekistan, Tadzhikistan, Kirgiziya, and southern Ranov (1963), Okladnikov(1966a), and Ranov (1968). In Kazahstan; the northernportions of Afghanistanalso fall nat- the last 10-15 years,there has been an intensificationof Soviet urallyinto this area. The eastern,mountainous part has been CentralAsian Paleolithic studies.