Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia 37 (2) 2009

Annotation:  Evolution of the Quaternary Environment in the Northwestern Altai Kostenki-4: The Position of Artifacts in Space and Time (the Analysis of the Cultural Layer) Stratigraphic Data on Middle Paleolithic Sites in the Upper Desna Basin Human-made Bedrock Holes (Mortars and Cupmarks) as a Late Natufi an Social Phenomenon Tsaram: A Burial Ground of the Hsiung-nu Elite in Transbaikalia Species Attribution of Hair of the Pazyryk Fur Coat from the Olon-Kurin-Gol-10 Burial Ground, Mongo Shaitanskoye Ozero II: New Aspects of the Uralian Bronze Age Yankovsky Economics: Animal Bones from 1st Millennium BC Settlements in Primorye, Russian Far East “Technical Decoration” of the Tripolye Ceramics On the Interpretation of Central Asian and South Siberian Rock Art Forms of Nomadism and Livestock Management of the Eastern Sayan Buryats in the Late 19th and Early Harvesting of Siberian Pine Nuts in Mountain Shoria: Traditions and Nowadays The Ethnic History of Medieval Novgorod (Based on Craniometric Data) Seliungur Teeth Revisited L.K. Gudkova.   

Evolution of the Quaternary Environment in the Northwestern Altai

A.K. Agadjanian and M.V. Shunkov.

Stratifi ed Paleolithic sites in the northwestern Altai are highly relevant to the reconstruction of environmental and human evolution in North and Central Asia. Multidisciplinary studies into these sites have focused on archaeological, geological and paleontological analysis, as well as on the reconstruction of relief, vegetation, fauna, and climate in the Middle and Upper Pleistocene. Analyses of modern environments have resulted in models which illustrate the relationships between the relief and fl oral and faunal communities. On the basis of these models, Holocene, Upper and Middle Pleistocene environments have been reconstructed. Contrasting climatic stages were selected including interglacial climatic optima versus the coldest period coinciding with the last glaciation.

Keywords: Middle Pleistocene, Upper Pleistocene, Holocene, paleontology, Pleistocene environments, ecology.