Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia 37 (4) 2009

Annotation:  Paleolithic Site Biryuchya Balka-2: Geology, Chronology, and Paleoecology Tolbaga: Upper Paleolithic Settlement Patterns in the Trans-Baikal Region Paleogeography of Kostenki-14 (Markina Gora) Triquestrums of the Scythian Period in the Northern Altai Woven Belts from Sargat Mound 7 at Chepkul-9 Early and Middle Bronze Age Portable Art Pieces from the Forest-Steppe Zone of the Ob-Irtysh Region Anthropomorphic, Zoomorphic, and Solar Symbolisms on Bronze Age Ceramics from the Western Baikal Re Petroglyphs on the Poperechnaya Krasnoyarka River Images of Eurasian Ethnicity in Works of Renaissance Polish Historians The Pleiades as Openings, the Milky Way as the Path of Birds, and the Girl in the Moon: Northern Eur Felt Boot Rollers of the Altai Craniometric Evidence of the Early Caucasoid Migrations to Siberia and Eastern Central Asia, with R Principal Findings of the 20th-Century Population Studies in Tuva On the Origin of the Ryukyu Islanders: The Integration of Craniometric and Cranial Nonmetric Data   

Paleogeography of Kostenki-14 (Markina Gora)

A.A. Velichko, V.V. Pisareva, S.N. Sedov, A.A. Sinitsyn, and S.N. Timireva.

Multidisciplinary geological and paleogeographical studies have demonstrated that the so-called humus strata in the deluvial apron of Kostenki-14 are paleosols of various origins. It has been shown that cryogenic deformations in the section were mainly caused by block displacements of the entire sequence rather than by solifl uction. At the time corresponding to the earliest cultural layer IVb (ca 37–36 ka BP), a fl at linear hollow with a brook at the bottom existed where currently the steep, convex slope (“promontory“) of Markina Gora exists. The early stage of the site’s existence (second half of the Middle Valdai megainterstadial) was marked by a mild climate, causing the spread of coniferous and broadleaved forests. Layer IVa (ca 33 ka BP) can be correlated with the beginning of cooling, when spruce forests still existed. At the end of the megainterstadial, the landscapes around the site varied from periglacial to tundra and forest-tundra. Layer I (ca 22 ka BP) correlates with the most severe cryoarid conditions of the pleniglacial.

Keywords: Upper Pleistocene, Upper Paleolithic, chronostratigraphy, paleocryogenesis, environmental and climatic reconstructions.