Abstract
This paper presents the results of a large-scale fieldwork project of interdisciplinary studies on the Middle Paleolithic settlement in the western Tian Shan piedmont. A complex of newly discovered "loess Paleolithic" open-air sites near Yangiobod (Uzbekistan), Katta Sai, was excavated. The excavations allowed identification of a new variant of human adaptation in the regional Middle Paleolithic. In the light of the newest anthropological and genetic data, this new archaeological sites fit to the current studies on the relations between different human species during the Middle and Early Upper Paleolithic in Central Asia. Geoarchaeological investigation of the sites has shown that the Paleolithic assemblages of Katta Sai are not preserved in situ. Cultural levels suffered from rill erosion, and most of the artifacts were re-deposited by water flow, and accumulated in secondary positions on the bottom of the branched rill system. This paper aims to reconstruct the subsequent processes of the site formation and to present the complicated geological situation of the studied sites of the Katta Sai complex, with implication for the archaeological interpretation of Paleolithic assemblages of the region.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 136-150 |
| Number of pages | 15 |
| Journal | Quaternary International |
| Volume | 399 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 18 Apr 2016 |
Funding
This study was supported by Polish National Science Center , grant number 2011/03/B/HS3/00473 , entitled “Three human species in Middle Upper Palaeolithic of Central Asia – an archaeological perspective”; the Institute of Geological Sciences, Polish Academy of Sciences , inner project “Uzbekistan”; and Tomsk State University , Academic D.I. Mendeleev Fund Program (in 2014–2015). The statistical and typological analyses of artifacts have been done with a financial support of Russian Scientific Foundation , grant number 14-50-00036 entitled “Multidisciplinary researches in the archaeology and ethnography of Northern and Central Asia”. Particle size analyses were possible thanks to the equipment purchased in the Operational Program ‘ Development of Eastern Poland’ 2007–13. Priority Axis I: Modern Economy. Measure I.3. Supporting innovation “The growth of the R and D potential of the Departments of Chemistry, Biology and Earth Sciences of the University of Maria Curie-Skłodowska in Lublin”.
Keywords
- "Loess Paleolithic"
- Assemblage integrity
- Central Asia
- Erosional rill
- Middle Palaeolithic
- Site formation