Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia 43 (4) 2015

Annotation:  The Pleistocene Peopling of the North: Paleolithic Milestones and Thresholds Horizons In Northern Eu Transitional Middle to Upper Paleolithic Industries in the Rubas Valley, Coastal Dagestan Truncated-Faceted Pieces in the Paleolithic of Northern Asia Archaeological Sites on the Angara Bank from the Chadobets River to Boguchany: Findings of a Survey A Rare Bronze Sword from Lake Baikal Shore A Stone Abrasive Tile from Cheremkhova, Western Amur Region A Ceremonial Saddle from Altynkazgan, Mangyshlak Peninsula, Kazakhstan First Steps Towards a National Geographic Information System, “Archaeological Sites of Russia” Petroglyphs of Khabarovsk Territory: The Impact of the 2013 Amur and Ussuri Flooding Shakan: Kazakh 18th–19th Century Narrow-Bladed Battle Axes Mapping the Traditional Dress Types of Southwestern Siberian Old Believers (late 1800s–early 1900s) The Impact of Urbanization on the Transmission of Culture and Language of the Sakha People: A Sociol The Morphology of Human Teeth from Afontova Gora II, Southern Siberia, and Their Status Relative to A Paleogenetic Study of Pazyryk People Buried at Ak-Alakha-1, the Altai Mountains   

Truncated-Faceted Pieces in the Paleolithic of Northern Asia

A.V. Shalagina, А.I. Krivoshapkin, and K.А. Kolobova.

Truncated-faceted pieces have been reported from many Paleolithic industries of Eurasia and Africa. In the latest decade, this category of artifacts has also been identifi ed as belonging to the Middle to Upper Paleolithic transitional and Early Upper Paleolithic industries of Northern Asia. The largest collection of such pieces in this region is associated with the Obi-Rakhmatian, primarily of the Paleolithic industry of the Obi-Rakhmat Grotto, Uzbekistan. A detailed analysis of Obi-Rakhmatian truncated-faceted pieces shows that despite unifi ed morphometric characteristics, they could differ in function. A comparison of these pieces with similar artifacts from nearby areas reveals their importance as a cultural and chronological marker of the terminal Middle Paleolithic and early Upper Paleolithic industries in Northern Asia.

Keywords: Terminal Middle Paleolithic, early Upper Paleolithic, Northern Asia, truncated-faceted pieces.