TY - JOUR
T1 - New evidence for Paleolithic human behavior in Mongolia
T2 - The Kharganyn Gol 5 site
AU - Khatsenovich, Arina M.
AU - Rybin, Evgeny P.
AU - Gunchinsuren, Byambaa
AU - Olsen, John W.
AU - Shelepaev, Roman A.
AU - Zotkina, Lidia V.
AU - Bolorbat, Tsedendorj
AU - Popov, Alexei Y.
AU - Odsuren, Davakhuu
N1 - Funding Information:
Our field studies in Mongolia were supported by a grant from the Ministry of Education & Science of the Russian Federation (Order No. 220) to Altai State University's project (Contract No. 14.Z50.31.0010) “Earliest Peopling of Siberia: Formation and Dynamics of Cultures in Northern Asia,” and by the Je Tsongkhapa Endowment for Central and Inner Asian Archaeology at the University of Arizona. The Max Planck Society generously provided support for radiocarbon dating.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2016 Elsevier Ltd and INQUA
PY - 2017/6/30
Y1 - 2017/6/30
N2 - Situated between the Altai Mountains and the Chinese Loess Plateau, the current territory of Mongolia played a pivotal role in Pleistocene human population dynamics in Northeast Asia with archaeological evidence suggesting the existence of cultural links with southern Siberia beginning in the Late Pleistocene. Here, we present preliminary results from the newly discovered site of Kharganyn Gol 5 in northern Mongolia. The results obtained from the Kharganyn Gol 5 site allow new reconstructions of chrono-cultural sequences and human behavior in eastern Central Asia. The site has yielded evidence of human occupation corresponding to several phases of the regional Upper Paleolithic. In addition, we present the first evidence of human occupation of the region prior to Greenland Interstadial 12 (GI12; 40,000–43,000 BP) and discuss the implications of such data. The Kharganyn Gol River basin contains sedimentary rock formations including numerous raw material outcrops, containing various types of chert. Prehistoric people used all these chert varieties for tool production, but the modes of raw material exploitation changed through time. This paper reports the presence, unique in Central and North Asia, of a non-utilitarian object made of muscovite mica in an Initial Upper Paleolithic assemblage in Archaeological Horizon 5 of the Kharganyn Gol 5 site.
AB - Situated between the Altai Mountains and the Chinese Loess Plateau, the current territory of Mongolia played a pivotal role in Pleistocene human population dynamics in Northeast Asia with archaeological evidence suggesting the existence of cultural links with southern Siberia beginning in the Late Pleistocene. Here, we present preliminary results from the newly discovered site of Kharganyn Gol 5 in northern Mongolia. The results obtained from the Kharganyn Gol 5 site allow new reconstructions of chrono-cultural sequences and human behavior in eastern Central Asia. The site has yielded evidence of human occupation corresponding to several phases of the regional Upper Paleolithic. In addition, we present the first evidence of human occupation of the region prior to Greenland Interstadial 12 (GI12; 40,000–43,000 BP) and discuss the implications of such data. The Kharganyn Gol River basin contains sedimentary rock formations including numerous raw material outcrops, containing various types of chert. Prehistoric people used all these chert varieties for tool production, but the modes of raw material exploitation changed through time. This paper reports the presence, unique in Central and North Asia, of a non-utilitarian object made of muscovite mica in an Initial Upper Paleolithic assemblage in Archaeological Horizon 5 of the Kharganyn Gol 5 site.
KW - Central Asia
KW - Human behavior
KW - Late Pleistocene
KW - Lithic raw material
KW - Lithic technology
KW - Mongolia
KW - Non-utilitarian object
KW - Terminal Middle Paleolithic
KW - Upper Paleolithic
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U2 - 10.1016/j.quaint.2016.10.013
DO - 10.1016/j.quaint.2016.10.013
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85014126512
SN - 1040-6182
VL - 442
SP - 78
EP - 94
JO - Quaternary International
JF - Quaternary International
ER -