Lithic industry of open-air Paleolithic assemblage of Gora Dolgaya (South Angara)
https://doi.org/10.21285/2415-8739-2025-2-8-26
EDN: KLAFOZ
Abstract
The Gora Dolgaya (Long Mountain) open-air site, part of the «Olonki Paleolithic stratum», is of key interest for studying the earli-est stages of the occupation of Baikal region by ancient humans. Although the site was discovered as early as 1969, its detailed analysis remained fragmentary for a long time. This study aims to introduce comprehensive data on the lithic composition, tech-nological, and typological features of the lithic industry into scholarly discourse to clarify its cultural-chronological status within the context of North Asian Paleolithic. Despite the fact that the collection was gathered from several points along the Lena-Angara Plateau's slope surface, an analysis of their spatial distribution, the correlation of finds, and the degree of artifact corrosion (wind abrasion) allows the materials, except for those from Point VI, to be considered as a single assemblage (n = 365) for the purposes of techno-typological analysis. Research indicates that the core reduction strategies of the complex are based on flat parallel flak-ing, radial flaking, proto-prismatic reduction of volumetric cores. Specialized Levallois techniques were not identified, though some radially prepared flakes could be tentatively interpreted as Levallois removals. Technological indexes by Bordes suggest that the assemblage is non-blade-based and non-faceted. The tool assemblage combines Middle and Upper Paleolithic morphotypes, including side-scrapers, end-scrapers, picks, chisel-like tools, and unique forms possibly linked to paleoglyptics (engraving or symbolic artifacts). Cultural parallels can be drawn with the lower cultural layers of Denisova Cave’s eastern gallery, and «Mamo-ny-type» Early Upper Paleolithic industries of the South Angara region.
Keywords
Baikal Siberia,
South Angara,
“Angara Mountains”,
Early Paleolithic,
Middle Paleolithic,
Early Upper Paleolithic,
Levallois,
typolo-gy,
knapping strategy
Supporting agencies: The author expresses gratitude to the staff of the Depository of the Baikal Region Research Center at Irkutsk State University - I.V. Ulanov and N.D. Kasprishina - for providing access to the «Angara Mountains» collections, as well as to D.N. Molchanov and E.O. Rogovskoi for their valuable consultations.
About the Author
A. M. Kuznetsov
Irkutsk State University
Russian Federation
Russian Federation
Aleksei M. Kuznetsov, Cand. Sci. (History), engineer-researcher of SRC «Baikal region»
1, Karl Marx St., 664003 Irkutsk
References
1. Anisyutkin N.K. (1968). Addition to the method of processing Lower Paleolithic complexes. Archaeological Papers of the State Hermitage Museum. No. 10. P. 5–8. (In Russ.).
2. Anisyutkin N.K. (2021) Stone tools of the pick category in the Earliest Paleolithic of the south of the East European Plain. Archaeological Bulletin. No. 33. P. 18-27. (In Russ.). DOI: 10.31600/1817-6976-2021-33-18-27. EDN: YUOGDW.
3. Debena A., Dibbl G.L. (2010) Handbook of Paleolithic typology. Vol. 1: Early and Middle Paleolithic of Europe. Irkutsk: Ottisk, 210 p. (In Russ.).
4. Kozlikin M.B. (2019) The Early Middle Paleolithic in Altai: New Data. Bulletin of NSU. Series: Hystory, Philolog. Vol. 18. No. 3. Archaeology and Ethnography. P. 45-52. (In Russ.). DOI: 10.25205/1818-7919-2019-18-3-45-52. EDN: TVPVQW.
5. Kuznetsov A.M., Lipnina E.A., Molchanov D.N. (2024) Aeolian corrasion of archaeological complexes: setting the issue. Stratum Plus. Archaeology and Cultural Anthropology. No. l. P. 367-384. (In Russ.). DOI: 10.55086/sp241367384. EDN: TUFAXD.
6. Lipnina E.A., Medvedev G.I. (2001) Some hypothesis about lithotechnological knapping strategy (debitaje) of «monolithic» in Middle Pleistocene lithic assemblages. Sovremennye problemy Evraziiskogo paleolitovedeniya: materialy dokladov Mezhdunarodnogo simpoziuma, posvyashchennogo 130-letiyu otkrytiya paleolita v Rossii, Irkutsk, 01–09 avgusta 2001 goda = Modern problems of Eurasian Paleolithic studies: Proceedings of the Reports of the International Symposium Dedicated to the 130th Anniversary of the Discovery of the Paleolithic in Russia, Irkutsk, August 1–9, 2001. Novosibirsk: Institute of Archeology and Etnography of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences. P. 252-256. (In Russ.).
7. Medvedev G.I. (1961) The position of the Verkholenskaya Gora culture in the archaeological periodization of the Cis-Baikal region. Issues of history of Siberia and Far East. Novosibirsk: Siberian Branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences. P. 235-244. (In Russ.).
8. Medvedev G.I. (1973) New Paleolithic sites of Angara valley, Antropologicheskaya rekonstruktsiya i problemy paleoetnografii: Sbornik pamyati M.M. Gerasimova = Anthropological Reconstruction and Problems of Paleoethnography: Collected Papers in Memories of M.M. Gerasimov. Moscow: Nauka. P. 148-152. (In Russ.).
9. Medvedev G.I. (1975) Early Paleolithic sites at the South Angara region. Ancient History of the South region of East Siberia. Irkutsk: Irkutsk University. Iss. 3. P. 3-36. (In Russ.).
10. Medvedev G.I. (1991) Pre-Mousterian cultures of Baikal Siberia (setting the issue), Problemy arkheologii i etnografii Sibiri i Dal'nego Vostoka, posvyashch. 100-letiyu N. K. Auerbakha. Kratkoe soderzhanie dokladov XXXI RASK = Problems of Archaeology and Ethnography of Siberia and Far East, Summary of the Reports of the XXXI RASC, dedicated to the 100th Anniversary of N.K. Auerbach. Krasnoyarsk. Vol. 2. P. 8-11. (In Russ.).
11. Medvedev G.I. (2001) On the geostratigraphy of Aeolian corraded assemblages of Baikal Siberia. Sovremennye problemy Evraziiskogo paleolitovedeniya: materialy dokl. mezhdunar. simp., posvyashch. 130-letiyu otkrytiya paleolita v Rossii, Irkutsk, 1–9 avg. 2001 g. = Modern Problems of Eurasian Paleolithic: Proceedings of the International Symposium Dedicated to the 130th Anniversary of the Discovery of the Paleolithic in Russia, Irkutsk, August 1–9, 2001. Novosibirsk: Institute of Archeology and Etnography of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences. P. 267-272. (In Russ.).
12. Medvedev G.I., Alaev S.N., Sokal'skii A.A. (1978) On the topography of Early Paleolithic sites on the high terraces of the Southern Angara region. Drevnyaya istoriya narodov yuga Vostochnoi Sibiri = Ancient History of the South Region of East Siberia. Irkutsk: Irkutsk State University. Iss. 4. P. 5-30. (In Russ.).
13. Meshcherin M.N., Klement'ev A.M., Lysenko D.N., Yamskikh G.Yu. (2025) Bone-bearing locality Yasnoe-1 in the Early Upper Palaeolithic of Central Siberia. Stratum Plus. Archaeology and Cultural Anthropology. No. 1. P. 197-228. (In Russ.). DOI: 10.55086/sp251197228. EDN: QIWLLR.
14. Nekhoroshev P.E. (1999) The technological method of the study of the Middle Paleolithic primary knapping strategies. St. Petersburg: Evropeiskii dom. 173 p. (In Russ.). EDN: VUIOXZ.
15. Pankina A.P. (2024) Paleoglyptics of the coastal territories of the Northwestern Pacific Ocean: History of study and criteria for identification. Bulletin of Irkutsk State University. Ser. Geoarchaeology. Ethnology. Anthropology. Vol. 48. P. 25-45. (In Russ.). DOI: 10.26516/2227-2380.2024.48.25. EDN: BPAKLF.
16. Slavinskii V.S., Tsybankov A.A. (2020) Towards the question of evolutionary continuity of the Middle and Upper Palaeolithic industries on the territory of the Gorny Altai (a criticism of the autochthonous development hypothesis). Stratum Plus. Archaeology and Cultural Anthropology. No. 1. P. 45-104. (In Russ.). EDN: MWVISW.
17. Bordes F. Typologie du Paléolithique ancien et moyen. Paris: CNRS, 1979. 103 p.
18. Jacobs Z., Li B., Shunkov M.V., Kozlikin M.B., Bolikhovskaya N.S., Agadjanian A.K., Uliyanov V.A., Vasiliev S.K., O’Gorman K., Derevianko A.P., Roberts R.G. Timing of archaic hominin occupation of Denisova Cave in southern Siberia // Nature. 2019. № 565 (7741). P. 594-599. DOI: 10.1038/s41586-018-0843-2.
19. Medvedev G.I. The Lower Paleolithic of Eastern Siberia // The Paleolithic of Siberia. New discoveries and interpretations. Urbana : University of Illinois Press, 1998. P. 27–35.
20. Rybin E.P., Khatsenovich A.M. Middle and Upper Paleolithic Levallois technology in eastern Central Asia // Quaternary International. 2020. Vol. 535. P. 117–138. DOI: 10.1016/j.quaint.2018.10.042.
Review
Views:
33
Email this article 