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. Since 1970,three monographs studiedmuch more thoroughlythan the westerndeserts. and morethan a hundredarticles have appearedin print. We wish to presenthere a brief summaryof the major The prevailingnotions in the West concerningthe Soviet resultsof the last 25 years of Paleolithicresearch in Soviet Central Asian Paleolithicseem to be that thereare no real Central Asia, with special attentionto the most important Lower Paleolithicsites (Klein 1966), that Middle Paleolithic problemsarchaeologists are facingthere. This is by no means sites reflectdiffusionary movements from southwestern Asia a comprehensivereview of the literatureor a lengthyanalysis (Chard 1974), as do Mesolithic sites, and that the Upper of data.2 Rather,it is an attemptto communicatesome of Paleolithic is barely represented(Movius 1953a). Indeed, themost significant features of the Soviet CentralAsian Paleo- similarviews have been held by some scholarsin the Soviet lithic, somethingwhich has not been done since Movius's Union. In contrast,we wish to establishthe followingmajor points: 1 This paper is the result of extendedcollaboration between the 1. Thereare unmistakableremains of Lower Paleolithiccul- authorsfrom May throughNovember 1977 in Tadzhikistan.Davis's turesin CentralAsia. Recent workat the sites of Karatau 1 visit to the Soviet Union was part of a programof exchangesbe- and Lakhuti 1 by Ranov and his geological co-workershas tween the National Academy of Science, U.S.A., and the Academv of Sciences,U.S.S.R. We wish to thank both institutionsfor mak- revealedpebble-tool and flakeindustries in situ in Middle and ing our cooperativework possible. UpperPleistocene paleosols which have been reliablydated by various means between130,000 and 200,000 B.P. 2 We are preparing a joint monograph which will include a years considerableamount of new data, a criticalreview of the literature, 2. Middle Paleolithic (Mousterian) sites are numerousin and many illustrations. Soviet CentralAsia, and theyexhibit great variability in terms of geographicallocation, stone tool typologyand technology, and preservationof features.Present are industrieswith and V. A. RANOVis Head of the Section of Archaeologyand Numis- withoutLevallois technique,pebble choppers and chopping matics, Institute of History, Tadzhik Academy of Sciences, tools, and Upper Paleolithicblade elements.Although some Academy of Sciences of the U.S.S.R. (33 Lenin Prospekt,Du- industriesshare some featureswith the southwesternAsian shanbe 734025,U.S.S.R.). He is also Deputy Chiefof the South- Middle Paleolithic,it is not at all correctto conclude that ern Tadzhikistan ArchaeologicalExpedition. Born in 1924, he theydeveloped as the resultof simplediffusion. received the degree of Kandidat of Historical Sciences from the Tadzhik Academy of Sciences in 1963 and has been active 3. Upper Paleolithic sites are present,although in small in the archaeologyof Central Asia for 25 years. He is the au- numbers,and they are nowherefound in cave deposits.The thor of four monographsand more than 150 articles; a recent Upper Paleolithicassemblages contain many Mousterianele- work, with S. A. Nesmeyanov (in Russian), is The Paleolithic ments,and thereis no reasonto believe on the basis of stone and Stratigraphyof the Anthropogeneof Central Asia (Dus- hanbe: Donish, 1973). tool technologyand typologythat therewas a sharp or dis- R. S. DAVIS is Lecturerin the Departmentof Anthropologyat tinctbreak between the Middle and Upper Paleolithic. Bryn Mawr College (Bryn Mawr, Pa. 19010, U.S.A.). Born in 4. During the early Holocene, the Pamir uplands,4,000 m 1944, he was educated at Columbia University (B.A., 1966; and more in elevation,were inhabitedfor the firsttime by Ph.D., 1974). He has taught at the State Universityof New hunter-gathererpopulations. Also, it appears, there was an York at Cortland (1971-72), Ohio University(1972-74), and Case WesternReserve University(1974-78). His researchinter- expansionof populationsinto the arid Turan depression.The ests are the Old World Paleolithic, especially that of South- Holocene industriesmay be roughlydivided into two groups: westernand Central Asia, paleoecology,and stone tool technol- nongeometric(Epi-Paleolithic) and geometric(Mesolithic). ogy. His publicationsinclude "The Paleolithic," in The Archae- The latterhas analogieswith industries in southwesternAsia. ology of Afghanistan,edited by N. Hammond and R. Allchin (London: Academic Press, 1978). 5. CentralAsia should by no means be consideredan iso- The presentpaper was submittedin finalform 7 VII 78. lated area of Paleolithicdevelopment. It combineselements Vol. 20 * No. 2 * June 1979 249 of the Asian chopper-chopping-tooltradition with Western to extendback in time to the late Pliocene (Dodonov and flakeand blade industries.This is truefor all periodsfrom the Pen'kov 1977, Dodonov, Melamed, and Nikiforova 1977). Lower Paleolithicthrough the Mesolithic.In general,this situ- Buried in these loess depositsis a series of paleosols.At the ation can be explainedby its geographicallocation, which is Chashmanigarlocality in southernTadzhikistan, 37 ancientsoil indeed centralto two if not threegeographic regions of Asia. horizonshave been identified.Above the Matuyama-Brunhes For the most part, researchon the Paleolithic in Soviet boundary,9-10 paleosols have been countedat fiveloess sec- CentralAsia may be characterizedas culture-historicalrecon- tions. Some geologistsjudge that soil formationtook place struction,the main goals being to locate and excavate sites in comparativelywarm, dry periods while loess was depos- fromthe full range of Paleolithictime, to order the sites ited underrelatively cool conditions(Grichuk and Lazarenko chronologically,and to comparelithic industries in an attempt 1970).3 This record of climatic oscillation,combined with to discovertraces of culturalcontact and patternsof change thermoluminescenceand paleomagneticdating, has provided of formthrough time. In part,this approach has been strongly forthe firsttime a real basis in Soviet CentralAsia forcorre- influencedby thenature of the available data. More than 90% lation with sequences in the rest of the world. As a result, of thePaleolithic sites are surfacefinds or foundin redeposited some geologistshave begunto use Alpineterminology (Wiirm, context.With one or two possible exceptions,there are no Riss, etc.), but forthe mostpart this systemof nomenclature knownliving floors in the open-airsites. Paleoclimaticrecon- has not gained generalacceptance. It is, however,difficult to structionis still in its infancy,and even the basic Quaternary overemphasizethe significanceof the recentwork in the loess, stratigraphyin manyareas is not well known.Systematic sur- and it seems certainthat it will radicallychange the picture vey forsites by randomsampling techniques is unknown,and of the Soviet Central Asian Pleistoceneas more analysis is no projects that could be describedas multistageproblem- completed. orientedresearch have been carriedout. Interdisciplinarystud- An importanttask for the futurewill be to correlatethe ies, particularlyinvolving geologists, palynologists, and archae- loess paleosols with the river-terracesystem so as to enable ologists,are increasinglyfrequent, and theircontinued develop- geologiststo tie in the Q1-Q4 systemwith the worldwidecli- mentwill be essentialfor furtheradvances in Soviet Central matic sequence. Much effortis currentlybeing expendedin Asian Paleolithicresearch. an attemptto understandthe originsof the loess that covers a vast area of southernSoviet Central Asia. In the West, loess is usuallydefined as an eolian deposit,but Soviet geol- QUATERNARY RESEARCH AND CHRONOLOGY ogistsare currentlydebating the meritsof eolian,alluvial, and