«BULLETIN OF THE IRKUTSK STATE UNIVERSITY. GEOARCHAEOLOGY, ETHNOLOGY, AND ANTHROPOLOGY SERIES»
ISSN 2227-2380 (Print)

List of issues > «Geoarchaeology, Ethnology, and Anthropology Series». 2016. Vol. 16

The Sequence of Cultural Development of the Early – Late Upper Paleolithic Industries in Mongolia

Full text (russian)

Author(s)
E. P. Rybin, A. M. Khatsenovich, G. D. Pavlenok
Abstract

In this article, we offer our interpretation of data on the sequence of Paleolithic industries in Central and Northern Mongolia – the only regions of the country where stratified Paleolithic sites from the period of the LGM and the immediately preceding and subsequent time were found. We will consider the chronological period from 34 000 to 17 000 cal BP (30 000–14 000 BP), associated with climatic instability and repeated alterations in the environmental conditions. The evidence on the behavioral strategies of the Paleolithic population of Mongolia, which we cited, does not yet make it possible to confidently speak about the changes in the settlement patterns as well as mobility and subsistence strategies, which were followed by the population in the period under discussion. The artifacts intended for specialized composite hunting implements, which were proliferated between the LGM and post-LGM, may give us some ideas about the changes in the methods of hunting and possibly in the objects of hunt. These artifacts include bladelets and points with backed edge, geometric forms, and tanged points. Spatial and temporal transgression of dates makes it possible to suggest that populations moved from the west to the east in the early stages of the Upper Paleolithic, and thus perceive the territory of Mongolia as a starting point for the settlement in the Transbaikalia and possibly in Ordos in the Northern China. The reverse direction of the population movement from the north-northwest, from the Transbaikalia towards Central Mongolia are more likely to have occurred in the later stage of the Upper Paleolithic.

Keywords
Central Asia, Mongolia, Last Glacial Maximum, industrial sequence, lithic technology
UDC
903.2
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