THE ‘TRI SKALY’ GEOARCHAEOLOGICAL SITE IN WESTERN TRANSBAIKALIA: NEW CHRONOLOGICAL STUDIES
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.14258/tpai(2022)34(2).-02Keywords:
Early Upper Paleolithic, Tolbaga culture, Paleolithic site Tri Skaly, stone industry, chronology, Western TransbaikaliaAbstract
The ‘Tri Skaly’ archaeological multilayered site in Western Transbaikalia is one of the latest discovered which investigations began in 2015. Lower lithological layers at this site contain archaeological materials typical for the Western Transbaikalian Early Upper Palaeolithic and revealed analogies in different areas with the materials of the most investigated sites belonged to this period: Podzvonkaya Eastern Complex, Podzvonkaya South-Eastern Complex, Tolbaga, Kamenka A and others. At the present chronological research concerning initial and early stages of the Upper Palaeolithic provides series of C-14 dates, which falls mostly in the range of 35–40 kya. Based on the morphology and typology of the stone artifacts from the Tri Skaly site lower layers have been dated to the early stage of the Upper Palaeolithic. The first radiocarbon date obtained on the bones from the bottom part of the 4 th lithological layer and indicated the age of 26 kya has put in question the dating made by correlations. New radiocarbon AMS-dates obtained on the bones from the same layer show the correctness of the first interpretation. According to these dates palaeolithic horizons of the Tri Skaly site are reliably dated in the range of 35–40 kya. Calibrated values point to the age near 40 kya as the most valid.
Downloads
References
Vasiliev S. G., Rybin E. P. Tolbaga: Upper Paleolithic Settlement Patterns in the TransBaikal Region. Arheologiya, etnografiya i antropologiya Evrazii = Archaeology, Ethnography and Anthropology of Eurasia. 2009;40(4):13–34. (In Russ.). doi:10.1016/j.aeae.2010.02.005
Derevianko A. P. The Upper Palaeolithic in Africa and Eurasia and the Origin of Anatomically Modern Humans. Novosibirsk : Izd-vo In-ta arheologii i etnografii SO RAN, 2011. 560 p. (In Russ.)
Derevianko A.P., Shunkov M.V. Formation of the Upper Paleolithic Traditions in the Altai. Arheologiya, etnografiya i antropologiya Evrazii = Archaeology, Ethnography and Anthropology of Eurasia. 2004;19(3):12–40. (In Russ.)
Konstantinov M. V. The Stone Age of the Eastern Region of Baikal Asia. Ulan-Ude ; Chita : Izd-vo ION BNC SO RAN; ChGPI im. N.G. Chernyshevskogo, 1994. 180 p. (In Russ.)
Lbova L. V. Paleolithic of the Northern Part of Western Transbaikal. Ulan-Ude : Izd-vo BNC SO RAN, 2000. 240 p. (In Russ.)
Orlova L. A., Kuzmin Ya. V., Lbova L. V. Radiocarbon Dates from the Palaeolithic and Mesolithic Sites of Transbaikalia and Mongolia. In: Palaeolithic Cultures of Transbaikal and Mongolia (new sites, methods and hypothesis). Novosibirsk : Izd-vo In-ta arheologii i etnografii SO RAN, 2005. Pp. 88–92. (In Russ.)
Rybin E. P., Antonova Yu. E, Tashak V. I., Kobylkin D. V., Khatsenovich A. M., Gunchinsuren B. Early Stages of the Upper Paleolithic in the Selenga River Basin: Technological Variability, Subsistence, Settlement Systems. Stratum plus. 2022;1:285–328. (In Russ.)
Tashak V. I. Chronology of Early Upper Paleolithic of Western Transbaikalia (on the materials from Podzvonkaya Site). In: Russian Archaeological Yearbook. No1. St. Petersburg : OOO «Universitetskij izdatel’skij konsortsium», 2011. Pp. 100–110. (In Russ.)
Tashak V. I. East Complex of Paleolithic Settlement Podzvonkaya in the Western Transbaikal Region. Irkutsk : Izdatel’stvo Instituta geografii im. V.B. Sochavy SO RAN, 2016. 175 p. (In Russ.)
Tashak V. I., Antonova Yu. E. ‘Tri Skaly’ — a New Archaeological Location in Western-Transbaikalia (preliminary report). Evraziya v kajnozoe. Stratigrafiya, paleoekologiya, kul’tury = Eurasia in the Cenozoic. Stratigraphy, Paleoecology, Culture. 2016;5:145–152. (In Russ.)
Tashak V. I., Antonova Yu. E. Blade Production in the Stone Industry of the ‘Tri Skaly’ Upper Palaeolithic Site (Western Transbaikalian). Teoriya i praktika arheologicheskih issledovanij = Theory and Practice of Archaeological Research. 2020a;4(32):95–108. (In Russ.)
Tashak V. I., Antonova Yu. E. Migrations and the Formation of the Early Upper Palaeolithic Blade Industries in Western Transbaikalia. Stratum plus. 2020b;1:105–116. (In Russ.)
Buvit I., Izuho M., Terry K., Konstantinov M. V., Konstantinov A. V. Radiocarbon Dates, Microblades and Late Pleistocene Human Migrations in the Transbaikal, Russia and the Paleo-Sakhalin-Hokkaido-Kuril Peninsula. Quaternary International. 2016;425:100–119.
Kuhn S. L., Zwyns N. Rethinking the Initial Upper Paleolithic. Quaternary International.2014;347(1):29–38. DOI: 10.1016/j.quaint.2014.05.040
Rybin E. P. Tools, Beads, and Migrations: Specific Cultural Traits in the Iinitial Upper Paleolithic of Southern Siberia and Central Asia. Quaternary International. 2014;347:39–52.
Zwyns N., Lbova L. V. The Initial Upper Paleolithic of Kamenka Site, the Zabaikal Region (Siberia): a Closer Look at the Blade Technology. Archaeological Research in Asia. 2019;17:24–49.Antonova Yu. E., Tashak V. I. Geoarcheological object ‘Tri Skaly’: the First Results of Chronological Studies. Evraziya v kainozoe. Stratigrafiya, paleoekologiya, kul’tury = Eurasia in the Cenozoic. Stratigraphy, Paleoecology, Culture. 2018;7:156–162. (In Russ.)
Antonova Yu. E., Tashak V. I., Kobylkin D. V. Dynamics of the Environment in the Late Pleistocene — Holocene in the West of the Tugnui-Suhara Valley (on the Example of the ‘Tri Skaly’ Site in the Western Transbaikal). In: Problems of Archaeology, Ethnography, Anthropology of Siberia and Neighboring Territories. Vol. 27. Novosibirsk : Izd-vo In-ta arheologii i etnografii SO RAN, 2021. Pp. 44–50. (In Russ.)
