Laminar technology and the onset of the Upper Paleolithic in the Altai, Siberia

Abstract

The Altai region has yielded a cluster of Middle and Upper Paleolithicstratified sites that have been recently excavated using a multidisciplinaryapproach. These sequences provide key evidence illustrating changes inmaterial culture corresponding to the transition from the Middle to theUpper Paleolithic. In Europe, this phenomenon is associated with thereplacement of Neandertals by modern humans. Based on this archeologicaldata set, local scholars have put forward a scenario of regional transitionto explain the emergence cultural and biological modernity. Recentdevelopments in ancient DNA studies, however, have complicated thismodel by showing that Neandertals were present in the Altai Mountainsuntil forty thousand years ago. In addition, a previously unknown genomehas been sequenced, demonstrating the presence of another type ofhominin in the region, the so-called ‘Denisovans’. The presence ofanatomically modern humans is confirmed by at least thirty thousandyears ago in Siberia. Based on a taphonomic and technological analysis ofthe Kara-Bom and Ust-Karakol laminar assemblages, the study presentedin this volume takes a close look at the early development of Upper Paleolithictechnical traditions in the Altai. The alternative chrono-culturalmodel presented as an attempt to conciliate archeological, environmental,genetic and paleontological data has substantial implications for ourunderstanding of the Late Pleistocene peopling of Asia.