SIBERIAN BRANCH OF THE RUSSIAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCES INSTITUTE OF ARCHAEOLOGY AND ETHNOGRAPHY ARCHAEOLOGY, ETHNOLOGY & ANTHROPOLOGY OF EURASIA Number 1 (25) 2006 Published in Russian and English CONTENTS PALEOENVIRONMENT. THE STONE AGE 2 A.P. Derevianko. The Lower Paleolithic Small Tool Industry in Eurasia: Migration or Convergent Evolution? 33 S.V. Leshchinskiy. Lugovskoye: Environment, Taphonomy, and Origin of a Paleofaunal Site 41 V.N. Zenin, S.V. Leshchinskiy, K.V. Zolotarev, P.M. Grootes, and M.-J. Nadeau. Lugovskoe: Geoarchaeology and Culture of a Paleolithic Site 54 S.V. Leshchinskiy, E.N. Maschenko, E.A. Ponomareva, L.A. Orlova, E.M. Burkanova, V.A. Konovalova. I.I. Teterina, and K.M. Gevlya. Multidisciplinary Paleontological and Stratigraphic Studies at Lugovskoe (2002 – 2004) THE NEOLITHIC 70 V.A. Zakh. Periodization of the Neolithic in the Tobol-Ishim Forest Zone THE METAL AGES AND MEDIEVAL PERIOD 84 Yu.F. Kiryushin, P.V. Volkov, and K.Yu. Kiryushin. A Plate with an Anthropomorphous Representation from Tytkesken-2: Chronological and Technological Aspects of the Torgazhak Tradition in the Altai-Sayan Highland 89 Yu.Yu. Shevchenko. Lower Levels of the Ilinsk Underground Monastery in Chernigov, Hegumens of the Monastery, and the “Jerusalem Trace” in Cave Architecture DISCUSSION ISSUES IN THE STUDY OF PREHISTORIC ART 110 O.V. Kovaleva. Petroglyphs of the Barsuchy Log Mound ETHNOLOGY 117 G.P. Vizgalov, S.G. Parkhimovich, T.N. Glushkova, E.V. Kireyeva, and A.V. Sutula. Early 17th-Century Textiles from Mangazea PHOTOETHNOGRAPHY THE NORTHWESTERN ALTAI: FOUR SEASONS 132 Winter. History of the Turata Kazakhs ANTHROPOLOGY 145 V.G. Moiseyev. Nonmetric Traits in Early Iron Age Cranial Series from Western and Southern Siberia REMEMBERED NAMES 153 Raisa Pavlovna Mitusova: Unknown Pages of her Biography. I.A. Karapetova and L.Yu. Kitova 160 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS 2 PALEOENVIRONMENT. THE STONE AGE DOI: 10.1134/S1563011006010014 A.P. Derevianko Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, Akademika Lavrentieva, 17, Novosibirsk, 630090, Russia E-mail: [email protected] THE LOWER PALEOLITHIC SMALL TOOL INDUSTRY IN EURASIA: MIGRATION OR CONVERGENT EVOLUTION? Introduction types and primary reduction than those of Olduvai I was identifi ed. Analyses of the industries from Omo locality During the last three decades, a whole range of Lower (Northeastern Africa) have shown a prevalence of very Paleolithic sites with small stone tools has been small fragments and tool types that have no analogues discovered throughout the territories of Africa and in the Oldowan culture and might represent a special Eurasia. These complexes with micro-tools have been Shungura facies (Chavaillon, 1970). It was presumed dated to between 2.3 Ma and 300 ka BP. The origin of that all the lithic technologies older than 2 Ma BP were these industries is enigmatic. Industries with micro-tools produced by hominids who had not mastered the basics might have emerged over such a vast territory in the of stone reduction. Therefore, researchers concluded course of migrations and/or as a result of changes in early that it is impossible to identify stable and successive human adaptive strategies in the face of environmental techniques in pre-Oldowan industries (Roche, 1989, fl uctuations. Humans had to adopt new raw materials 1996). M. Kibunjia (1994) argued that industries older and create new varieties of shapes and types of stone than 2 Ma BP (Western Turkana, Omo) showed poor tools. Based on current data, we are going to discuss the knowledge of the characteristics and quality of raw dissemination of the small tool industry during the early material and a poor mastery of reduction techniques by hominid migration out of Africa during pre-Acheulian early hominids. He believed that, along with the Shungur period. From this viewpoint, the initial peopling of facies, another tradition called the Nachukui industry Eurasia took place in two migration waves: the bearers existed in Western Turkana. Some scholars argued that of the Oldowan lithic tradition and those of the micro- at these sites, the choices of raw material as well as the tool industry. lithic reduction techniques were considerably different from the Oldowan ones at the earliest stages of tool production. Beginnings of the small tool industry I. de la Torre (2004) also analyzed collections from the Omo basin. These Late Pliocene – early Middle The emergence of small tool technology is linked Pleistocene sites with one of the earliest lithic with the initial period of stone tool production by the industries are located on the west bank of the Omo earliest Homo. The most detailed classifi cation of this River in Ethiopia. It is an area where thick layers of soft early industry was proposed by M. Leakey (1971). She sediments accumulated as a result of tectonic processes analyzed the industry from Olduvai Beds 1 and 2 and and signifi cant erosion. Four formations have been devised the classic lithic typology for this period. In the recognized within these deposits: Mursi, Nkalabong, course of studies of sites older than 2 Ma BP in the Awash Usno and Shungura. The Shungura formation River basin (Northeastern Africa), an industry older and accumulated during the period of 3.6 – 1.3 Ma BP. It showing dramatically different features of lithic tool partially overlies the Usno formation and stretches over Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia 1 (25) 2006 E-mail: [email protected] © 2006, A.P. Derevianko 2 3 60 km from north to south and over 7 km from east to quartz ones and 30 – 40 mm long, that were reduced west. This formation has a maximum thickness of more using direct percussion with a hammerstone. From than 1000 m and is subdivided into 13 units (Howell, three to four fl akes were usually detached from any Haesaerts, Heinzelin, 1987) designated with the letters natural surface of a blank. The striking platform of the Latin alphabet from A to L from bottom upwards. was not rejuvenated in the course of reduction. Two The Shungura formation yielded about 220 hominid cores demonstrate bipolar reduction technique: a fossils: unit C contained Australopitecus aethiopicus, comparatively small core was fi xed on an anvil and unit G – Australopitecus boisei and Homo sapiens fl aking was executed with the help of hammerstone. (Suwa, White, Howell, 1996). Excavations in the Omo The proximal and distal ends of such cores show traces basin were conducted by a French team headed by of fracturing. Two other cores show bifacial fl aking. D. Chavaillon (Chavaillon, Boisaubert, 1977). Analyses These two cores are comparatively large and probably showed that lithic materials from loci 71 and 84 within represent initial stages of preparation of a striking unit E represented geofacts rather than artifacts. platform. Reduction was executed through conchoidal I. de la Torre wrote that the sheer absence of cores, structure of the blank. Quartz was transported to the fl akes and other clear evidence of intentional stone site from some distant place. fl aking makes Omo-84 unlikely to be an archaeological We have made such a detailed review of de la Torre’s site. Consequently, any further speculations about traces conclusions because we regard them as conclusive. This of human activity within unit E do not make any sense paper has also been discussed in Current Anthropology, (Torre, 2004: 442). making us believe that the majority of scholars agree Unit F, with a total thickness of about 35 m, with his major inferences. comprises four to fi ve sedimentary layers which overlie The major inference from this review is that one of tuff F and date to 2.34 ± 0.04 Ma. Four loci with lithic the most ancient African industries is clearly microlithic. tools were identifi ed within the lower portion of F1 All the sites discovered at present and attributed to 2.5 – and one locus in the upper portion of F3. De la Torre 2.2 Ma BP are located in the northern part of the East Af provided a detailed description of Omo-57, horizon F1 rican Rift, mostly in three regions: in the middle basin of and Omo-123, horizon F3. Within Omo-57 collection, the Awash (Bouri, Kada Gona and Hadar) and within the he identifi ed seven cores with a mean length of 37.4 mm, basins of lakes Turkana (Omo and Lokalalei) and Victoria 45 complete fl akes, including retouched forms, with (Kanjera). All of these sites have yielded industries with a mean length of 24.7 mm, 81 fl ake fragments with varying numbers of small tools differing from those of a mean length of 20.9 mm, and 25 angular fragments the Oldowan culture. slightly larger than 10 mm. Angular pieces of quartz Semaw, in his research of the most ancient industries were used as cores; natural surfaces of quartz pieces of the Kada Gona basin, has come to a contrasting were used as striking platforms. Small blanks (30 – conclusion (Semaw, 2000). He has argued that as early 40 mm) show scars of three to four removals. Hominids as 2.6 – 1.5 Ma ago in Eastern Africa there were no local seem to have chosen blanks with appropriate surfaces variants of the Oldowan culture. and removed a limited number of fl akes until the angle Multidisciplinary research in the Kada Gona basin in between the platform and fl aking surface did not permit 1992 – 1994 resulted in the discovery of 16 sites yielding further reduction (Ibid.: 445). more than 3000 artifacts both in situ and on the surface. Locus of Omo-123 yielded a greater number of Radioisotope (40Ar/39Ar) and magnetostratigraphic artifacts than Omo-57. Within a collection totaling analyses suggest that these fi nds date back to 2.6 – 1314 specimens, de la Torre differentiated between 2.5 Ma BP.