Accelerator radiocarbon dating of the initial Upper Palaeolithic in southeast Siberia.

Accelerator radiocarbon dating of the initial Upper Palaeolithic in southeast Siberia. IntroductionThe timing of the Middle to Upper Palaeolithic transition (Binford1989; Klein 1992; Knecht et el. 1993; Mellars 1989a; 1989b; White 1982)is not entirely clear, since it lies at or just beyond the limit ofradiocarbon (14C) dating, 5030,000 years ago (b.p.). Until recently, theearliest Upper Palaeolithic was thought to date to 35,000 b.p. (Gamble1986: 245; Mellars et el. 1987: 128; Straus & Heller 1988: 99), butAMS AMS - Andrew Message System 14C, thermoluminescence thermoluminescenceEmission of light from certain heated substances as a result of previous exposure to high-energy radiation. The radiation causes displacement of electrons within the crystal lattice of the substance. and uranium-series dating methods now showthat the earliest Upper Palaeolithic in Europe and the Levant Levant(ləvănt`)[Ital.,=east], collective name for the countries of the eastern shore of the Mediterranean from Egypt to, and including, Turkey. emerged asearly as 40,000 b.p. (Bar-Yosef et el. 1992: 517; Bischoff et el. 1989;Hedges et el. 1990; Mellars 1993; Valdes & Bischoff 1989).New dates also change the timing of the transition in Inner Asia. AtKara-Bom, southwest Siberia, AMS 14C determinations from a basal UpperPalaeolithic occupation demonstrate that the transition occurred asearly as 45,000 b.p., at least 8,000 years earlier than previouslythought (Goebel et al. 1993). The new AMS 14C determinations presentedin this report, from two sites in southeast Siberia, confirm theKara-Bom findings. The Middle to Upper Palaeolithic transition in InnerAsia occurred as early as it did in Europe and southwestern Asiapossibly even earlier.The sitesMakarovo-4Makarovo-4 is a single-component open-air site located along theupper Lena River, 8 km northwest of the village of Kachug, IrkutskOblast', Russia [ILLUSTRATION FOR FIGURE 1 OMITTED] (53 [degrees 56[minutes] N, 105 [degrees] 50 [minutes] E), and discovered by Aksenov(1978; 1989a; 1989b) in 1975. In excavations conducted from 1975 through1982 an area of about 1100 sq. m was exposed, and over 4000 artefactswere recovered (Aksenov 1989a; 1989b; Medvedev et al. 1990).The site is situated along the south-facing bluff of a side-valleyalluvial fan (called the fourth terrace by Tseitlin (1979: 199)), 40 mabove the right bank of the Lena River (Aksenov 1989b; Vorob'eva1987: 19). Its Quaternary quaternary/qua��ter��nary/ (kwah��ter-nar?e)1. fourth in order.2. containing four elements or groups.qua��ter��nar��yadj.1. Consisting of four; in fours. stratigraphy stratigraphy,branch of geology specifically concerned with the arrangement of layered rocks (see stratification). Stratigraphy is based on the law of superposition, which states that in a normal sequence of rock layers the youngest is on top and the oldest on the has a series of colluvial andaeolian Ae��o��li��an?adj.1. Of or relating to Aeolis or its people or culture.2. Greek Mythology Of or relating to Aeolus.3. aeolian Variant of eolian.n.1. loams and sandy loams divisible DIVISIBLE. The susceptibility of being divided. 2. A contract cannot, in general, be divided in such a manner that an action may be brought, or a right accrue, on a part of it. 2 Penna. R. 454. into four sets of sediments[ILLUSTRATION FOR FIGURE 2 OMITTED] (Aksenov 1989b; Tseitlin 1979:197-8; Vorob'eva 1987). Set 4, at the base of the exposed profile,is a series of interbedded, colluvial sands, sandy loams, silts, andclays with abundant rock inclusions. Set 3 consists of two subunits, a1.5-m thick bed of highly carbonate-cemented loess-like loam containinga distinct palaeosol (3b) overlain o��ver��lain?v.Past participle of overlie. by a 3- to 10-cm thick band of sandand rock debris (3a). Set 2 includes interbedded layers of sand andhighly carbonate-cemented loess. Set 1, the top 40-60 cm of the profile,consists of a loam masked by an early Holocene (?) palaeosol and modernsoil horizons.Early Upper Palaeolithic artifacts at Makarovo-4 occur along thesurface of Set 3a, which has undergone considerable post-depositionaldeformation (Aksenov 1989a: 125; Aksenov & Naidentskaia 1979). Set3a appears to be a lag deposit left behind after finer sediments hadbeen deflated by intense, high winds. Many lithic lith��ic?1?adj.Consisting of or relating to stone or rock.Adj. 1. lithic - of or containing lithium2. lithic - relating to or composed of stone; "lithic sandstone" artefacts and faunalremains lying on the surface of this lag deposit are polished fromsand-blasting. Winds probably blew smaller artefacts across the siteaway from main activity areas, and solifiuction moved artefacts down the6 [degrees] slope the site lies upon. A series of ice-wedge pseudomorphsbreach the cultural component, forming a network of polygons that extendacross the site.This complex geologic context makes dating the Makarovo-4 culturaloccupation difficult. Tseitlin (1979) originally placed the deflationevent of Set 3a into a glacial interval when the upper Lena valley wascold, dry and windswept. If Set 2 sediments record the last glacialmaximum The Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) refers to the time of maximum extent of the ice sheets during the last glaciation (the W��rm or Wisconsin glaciation), approximately 20,000 years ago. This extreme persisted for several thousand years. (oxygen-isotope stage 2), as Aksenov (1989b), Tseitlin (1979)and Vorob'eva (1987) concur, then the deflation of Set 3a and thesand-blasting of the lithic artefacts and bone must have taken placeduring an earlier glacial period. Tseitlin (1979) and Vorob'eva(1987) assign this event to the Early Pleniglacial (oxygen-isotope stage4), linking the cultural remains to a date of at least 80-70,000 b.p.Aksenov (1989b) instead argues that deflation and sand-blasting couldhave occurred during a cold snap of the Middle (stage 3) or early LatePleniglacial (stage 2) periods; this would place the early UpperPalaeolithic cultural occupation at no more than 55-35,000 b.p. (Aksenov1989a: 16; 1989b: 150; 1990: 7).The Makarovo-4 artefact See artifact. assemblage consists of 4119 lithic pieces,produced chiefly from cherts and quartzites (Aksenov 1989b; Goebel1993). The 113 cores include parallel ('flat-faced'),sub-parallel and radial forms, many prepared for the detachment ofblades, flake-blades and elongate e��lon��gate?tr. & intr.v. e��lon��gat��ed, e��lon��gat��ing, e��lon��gatesTo make or grow longer.adj. or elongated1. Made longer; extended.2. Having more length than width; slender. cortical spalls; 42% of all toolblanks are blades and flake-blades [ILLUSTRATION FOR FIGURE 3 OMITTED](Goebel 1993). The tool assemblage is characterized by retouched bladesand flakes, end-scrapers, side-scrapers, cobble choppers andhammer-stones, knives, notches, denticulates, wedges, gravers, unifacialpoints on blades, and one biface (Aksenov 1989a; Aksenov et al. 1987;Goebel 1993). Faunal remains consist of 502 fragmented and sand-blastedbone, five identified as woolly rhinoceros rhinoceros,massive hoofed mammal of Africa, India, and SE Asia, characterized by a snout with one or two horns. The rhinoceros family, along with the horse and tapir families, forms the order of odd-toed hoofed mammals. (Coelodonta antiquitatis),red deer (Cervus elaphus) and roe deer (Capreolus sp.) (Aksenov 1989a).Aksenov (1989a) describes two hearth-like features and two majoractivity areas uncovered during excavations. The site's location ona promontory promontory/prom��on��to��ry/ (prom��on-tor?e) a projecting process or eminence. prom��on��to��ryn.A projecting part.promontorya projecting process or eminence. high above the Lena River, the high density of lithic andfaunal remains, and the hearth features suggest that Makarovo-4 was atemporary hunting camp (Aksenov 1989a).Varvarina GoraThe early Upper Palaeolithic site Varvarina Gora('Barbarian's Mountain') is located 4 km north of thevillage of Staraia Brian', Buriat Republic, Russia, along the leftbank of the Brianka River, 300 km southeast of Makarovo-4 [ILLUSTRATIONFOR FIGURE 1 OMITTED] (51 [degrees] 35 [minutes] N, 108 [degrees] 6[minutes] E). Bazarov and Khamzina discovered the site in 1964 (Bazarov1968), and Okladnikov excavated it in 1973-1975 (Bazarov et al. 1982:87-90; Okladnikov 1974; Okladnikov & Kirillov 1980: 31-4). VarvarinaGora is a single-component open-air site with abundant lithic and faunalremains.The site is situated on a high colluvial fan deposit nearly 40 mabove and 600 m west of the Brianka River (Bazarov 1968; Bazarov et al.1982: 87-9; Lbova 1992: 164; Tseitlin 1979: 212-14). The stratigraphicprofile, over 2 m thick, displays a complex series of reworked colluvialdeposits (layers 2 and 4) interdigitated with lenses ofcarbonate-cemented loess-like loams (layers 1 and 3), perhaps aeolian inorigin [ILLUSTRATION FOR FIGURE 4 OMITTED] (Bazarov et al. 1982: 87-8;Tseitlin 1979: 212-13).Early Upper Palaeolithic cultural remains occur within the carbonatedloams of layer 3 (Bazarov et al. 1982: 88). Two samples of bone fromthis layer yielded conventional 14C determinations of 30,600[+ or -]500(SOAN-850) and 34,900[+ or -]780 (SOAN-1524) b.p. (Okladnikov &Kirillov 1980: 34; Bazarov et al. 1982: 89). Associated pollen reflectscold and mesic mes��ic?adj. EcologyOf, characterized by, or adapted to a moderately moist habitat.mesic?Relating or adapted to a moderately moist habitat. conditions, and, together with the 14C determinations,indicates to Bazarov et al. (1982: 89) that the cultural occupationdates to an early stade (the Siberian Konoshchel'e stade) of theMiddle Pleniglacial (stage 3), roughly 34,000-31,000 b.p. (Bazarov et1982: 89).The cultural remains from Varvarina Gora have never been fullydescribed (but brief descriptions can be found in Goebel (1993), Lbova(1992), Okladnikov (1974) and Okladnikov & Kirillov (1980)). Thelithic industry consists of 1451 artefacts, including 226 tools (Goebel1993; Lbova 1992: 165). Most cores are parallel ('flat-faced')or subprismatic, and 49% of all tools are manufactured on blades orflake-blades (Goebel 1993) [ILLUSTRATION FOR FIGURE 3 OMITTED]. The toolassemblage consists of retouched blades and flakes, side-scrapers,end-scrapers, knives, wedges, perforators, burins and cobble tools(Goebel 1993; Lbova 1992: 165; Okladnikov & Kirillov 1980: 32).There are also a flat stone 'semi-disk' (possibly a pendantfragment), two incised and polished bone 'awl-like points', afiat bone spatulate-shaped rod that appears to have served as aretoucher re��touch?v. re��touched, re��touch��ing, re��touch��esv.tr.1. To add new details or touches to for correction or improvement.2. , and a 'cut and sharpened' ivory-tusk fragment(Kirillov 1987: 71; Okladnikov & Kirillov 1980: 33-4). Mammalsidentified in the faunal assemblage are predominantly steppe steppe(stĕp), temperate grassland of Eurasia, consisting of level, generally treeless plains. It extends over the lower regions of the Danube and in a broad belt over S and SE European and Central Asian Russia, stretching E to the Altai and S to and alpineforms, and include numerous specimens of Mongolian gazelle gazelle,name for the many species of delicate, graceful antelopes of the genus Gazella, inhabiting arid, open country. Most gazelles are found only in Africa, but several species range over N Africa and SW Asia; the Persian, or goitered, gazelle ( (Procapragutturosa), horse (Equus coballus), woolly rhinoceros (Coelodonto sp.),[TABULAR DATA FOR TABLE 1 OMITTED] argali argalia wild sheep Ovis ammon. sheep (Ovis ammon) andSiberian marmot marmot,ground-living rodent of the genus Marmota, of the squirrel family, closely related to the ground squirrel, prairie dog, and chipmunk. Marmots are found in Eurasia and North America; the best-known North American marmot is the woodchuck, M. (Marmoto sibirica) (Ovodov 1987).Okladnikov & Kirillov (1980: 31-2) describe severalarchaeological features interpreted as storage pits. One pit, with stonewalls and a stone floor, contained a wolf's skull and a set ofcomplete horse bones. This feature was originally interpreted as'the ritual burial of a predator's head, accompanied by thesacrificial offering of an entire horse' (Okladnikov & Kirillov1980: 32). Possibly these pits were part of a larger 80-sq.-m circularhut, the evidence for which included occasional blocks of stonereportedly forming a circle (Okladnikov & Kirillov 1980: 32; Lbova1992: 165). Whether this is actually the remains of a Palaeolithicdwelling is not entirely clear. The density of lithic pieces and varietyof faunal remains nonetheless indicate that Varvarina Gora served earlyUpper Palaeolithic Siberians as a temporary hunting camp.AMS 14C analysis and resultsIn 1992, bone samples recovered alongside lithic artefacts fromMakarovo-4 and Varvarina Gora were submitted for accelerator radiocarbonanalysis. The samples from Makarovo-4 had been collected by Aksenov in1979-1980, and those from Varvarina Gora by Okladnikov in 1973.Accelerator 14C age determinations on bone samples were carried outat the NSF-Arizona AMS Facility, with sample pretreatments at theLaboratory of Isotope Geochemistry, University of Arizona (body, education) University of Arizona - The University was founded in 1885 as a Land Grant institution with a three-fold mission of teaching, research and public service. (Tucson)(methods described by Long et al. (1989)). Briefly, each bone sample wasphysically separated from any sediment and soil-derived organic matter,decalcified in weak hydrochloric acid and bathed in hot (90 [degrees] C)water to extract protein gelatin gelatinor animal jelly,foodstuff obtained from connective tissue (found in hoofs, bones, tendons, ligaments, and cartilage) of vertebrate animals by the action of boiling water or dilute acid. for analysis. Once filtered andfreeze-dried, each gelatin sample was hydrolysed by heating at 110[degrees] C for 24 hours Adv. 1. for 24 hours - without stopping; "she worked around the clock"around the clock, round the clock , then passed through XAD-2 resin to isolateamino acids from potential contaminants. The XAD-purified gelatinhydrolysate hydrolysate/hy��drol��y��sate/ (hi-drol��i-sat) any compound produced by hydrolysis.protein hydrolysate was then converted to a graphite accelerator target (by themethod of Jull et al. (1983)) and used for AMS dating.Resulting AMS 14C determinations (corrected for 13C fractionation fractionation/frac��tion��a��tion/ (frak?shun-a��shun)1. in radiology, division of the total dose of radiation into small doses administered at intervals.2. )are presented in TABLE 1 and FIGURE 5. The three bone samples fromMakarovo-4 displayed excellent preservation of original amino acids,yielding high proportions (8.15 to 15.85%) of protein by weight (A. Longpers. comm.). All three Makarovo-4 AMS 14C determinations are infinite([greater than]39,000 (AA-8880), [greater than]38,000 (AA-8879) and[greater than]38,000 (AA-8878) b.p.), and indicate that the age of thisearly Upper Palaeolithic occupation is likely to pre-date 39,000 b.p.The two samples from Varvarina Gora yielded lower proportions (1.2 to7.8%) of protein, but were sufficiently preserved to permit AMS 14Canalysis. Both resulting determinations are infinite ([greater than]35,300 (AA-8893) and [greater than]34,050 (AA-8875) b.p.) and suggest anage for this occupation of earlier than 35,000 b.p.DiscussionTogether the new radiocarbon determinations from Makarovo-4 andVarvarina Gora tell us that the earliest Upper Palaeolithic of Siberiais more ancient than AMS 14C bone dating techniques currently allow, andsignificantly older than earlier conventional 14C determinationssuggested [ILLUSTRATION FOR FIGURE 5 OMITTED]. They also indicate thatthe transition to the Upper Palaeolithic in southeast Siberia predates39,000 b.p.The new infinite determinations, however, do not resolve the issuessurrounding the ages of the early Upper Palaeolithic occupations atMakarovo-4 and Varvarina Gora. At Makarovo-4, the deflation that formedthe lag deposit and removed the artefacts and bones from their originalpositions can still be assigned to either oxygen-isotope stage 4, stage3, or an early stade of stage 2. Technological and typologicalsimilarities with the basal Upper Palaeolithic component at Kara-Bom insouthwest Siberia favour an age for Makarovo-4 of roughly 50,000-40,000b.p., as Aksenov (1990: 7) suggested. If this proves the case, thedeflation event must have occurred during the Middle or early LatePleniglacial (40,000-20,000 b.p.). Possibly the ice-wedge pseudomorphsof Set 2 formed during a cold snap of the late glacial (11-10,000 b.p.),not during the last glacial maximum (22-18,000 b.p.). Resolution ofthese issues requires dating of the entire Makarovo-4 profile through14C and other dating methods.The absolute age of the early Upper Palaeolithic occupation atVarvarina Gora is also unclear. Bazarov et al. (1982: 89) assign thesite to Siberia's Konoshchel'e stade of the MiddlePleniglacial (stage 3), dated independently to 35,000-31,000 b.p. (Kind1974). However, the new infinite determinations suggest the site wasoccupied during an earlier cold snap of the Middle Pleniglacial; such aninterval may have occurred in Siberia between 45,000 and 43,000 b.p.(the 'Early' stade of the Middle Pleniglacial) (Kind 1974;Goebel 1993: 51). Such a date would match the hypothesized ages ofsimilar lithic industries at Kara-Bom and Makarovo-4.ConclusionsPresently, the earliest absolutely dated Inner Asian UpperPalaeolithic industries occur at Kara-Bom in the Mountainous Altai,southwest Siberia, where basal Upper Palaeolithic occupations are AMS14C dated to 43,300[+ or -]1600 (GX-17596) and 43,200[+ or -]1500 b.p.(GX-17597) [ILLUSTRATION FOR FIGURE 5 OMITTED] (Goebel et al. 1993).Although these dates press the limit of 14C dating, they demonstratethat the Upper Palaeolithic appeared in southwest Siberia at least asearly as 42,000 b.p. The new AMS determinations from Makarovo-4 andVarvarina Gora are not inconsistent and encourage three conclusions:The Middle to Upper Palaeolithic transition in Siberia occurred atleast 6000 years earlier than previously thoughtConventional 14C determinations from a number of sites (e.g.,Kara-Bom, Malaia Syia, Varvarina Gora, Tolbaga) previously suggested anage of 33,000-30,000 b.p. for the emergence of Upper Palaeolithictechnologies. We now know that a full early Upper Palaeolithic complexexisted across southern Siberia by about 40,000 b.p.The early Upper Palaeolithic in Siberia is as ancient as in westernEurasiaAbsolute dates from initial Upper Palaeolithic occupations in theLevant (Boker Tachtit, Kebara Cave), southeast Europe (Istallosko, BachoKiro, Temnata Cave), and southwest Europe (El Castillo Cave,L'Arbreda Cave) only rival the Siberian initial Upper Palaeolithicin age. None have been demonstrably dated to an earlier period thanKara-Bom (components IIa-b) and Makarovo-4.Siberia in the mid Upper Pleistocene was not a remote hominid hominidAny member of the zoological family Hominidae (order Primates), which consists of the great apes (orangutans, gorillas, chimpanzees, and bonobos) as well as human beings. 'outpost,' but was central to the Palaeolithic worldThe dramatic behavioural shifts apparent across the Middle to UpperPalaeolithic transition in Europe are just as evident in thearchaeological record of Siberia. Whether these changes in technologyand behavior around 40,000 b.p. represent the influx of a new populationof anatomically modern humans into Inner Asia must await additionalexcavations and discoveries of hominid fossil material.Acknowledgements. Funding support of this research was provided bythe L.S.B. Leakey Foundation, National Science Foundation (Arctic SocialSciences, Division of Polar Programs), and University of Alaska MuseumGeist Fund. We thank Craig Gerlach, John Hoffecker, David Hopkins, RogerPowers, Richard Scott and three anonymous reviewers for their helpfulcomments on earlier drafts of this work. We are also indebted to thefollowing people: James Bischoff, Anatoli Derevianko, Mark Diab, MikhailKonstantinov, Austin Long, German Medvedev, Mysha Meshcherin, SergeiPerzhakov, Nikolai Ovodov, Maksim Semin. Sergei Slobodin, SergeiVasil'ev and Oleg Zadonin. These scientists have contributed muchtime and energy to our ongoing effort in dating the SiberianPalaeolithic.ReferencesAKSENOV, M.P. 1978. Issledovaniia Paleoliticheskogo pamiatnikaMakarovo IV na verkhnei Lene, in Arkheologicheskie Otkrytiia 1977 Goda:204. Moscow: Nauka.1989a. Paleolit i Mezolit Verkhnei Leny. 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Irkutsk: IrkutskiiGosudarstvennyi Universitet.WHITE, R. 1982. Rethinking the Middle/Upper Paleolithic transition,Current Anthropology 23: 169-92.Ted Goebel, Department of Sociology Noun 1. department of sociology - the academic department responsible for teaching and research in sociologysociology departmentacademic department - a division of a school that is responsible for a given subject & Anthropology, SouthernOregon State College, Ashland OR 97520, USA. Mikhail Aksenov, Departmentof Archaeology & Ethnography, Irkutsk State University Irkutsk State University (Russian: Иркутский государственный , 1 K. MarxStreet, Irkutsk 664003, Russia.