Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia 51 (3) 2023   doi:10.17746/1563-0110.2023.51.3.003-008

Annotation:  A.P. Derevianko’s Multivolume Three Global Human Migrations in Eurasia and Its Place in Paleolithic Core-Shaped Tools from the Early Pleistocene Deposits at Bairaki, Moldova Early-Middle Acheulean Occupation of the Northern Transcaucasian Highland Nikolaevo-Otradnoye II—A New Early and Middle Paleolithic Site in the Northeastern Azov Region On the Attribution of Lithic Industry from the Early Paleolithic Site of Bogatyri/Sinyaya Balka, the Gazma Cave—A Final Middle Paleolithic Site in Azerbaijan: Paleogeography, Chronology, Archaeology Variability in the Sibiryachikha Assemblages of the Altai Mountains (Based on Materials from Okladni Spatial Structures of the Initial/Early Upper Paleolithic at Tolbor-21, Northern Mongolia A Complex of Stratifi ed Upper Paleolithic Sites in the Foothills of the Northern Tien Shan: General Late Pleistocene Environments of East Kazakhstan (Based on Ushbulak Site Materials) A New Type of IUP Settlement in the Selenga River Basin, Northern Mongolia: The Kharganyn Gol-13 Sho Morpho-Stratigraphy, Sedimentology, and Radiocarbon Chronology of Suyanggae Sites, Focusing on Loc. Khengerekte-Sukhotino—An Upper Paleolithic Culture in Transbaikalia Late Pleistocene to Early Holocene Paleoclimatic Boundaries and Human Settlement of the East Siberia Late Upper Paleolithic of the South Minusinsk Basin and its Mountain Surroundings: Research Results Ɖiem Cave: A Stratified Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene Site in Northern Vietnam A Case of Systemic Connective Tissue Disorder in a Pazyryk Male from the Altai Mountains   

A.P. Derevianko’s Multivolume
Three Global Human Migrations in Eurasia
and Its Place in Paleolithic Studies

R.H. Suleimanov

National University of Uzbekistan, Universitet Ko’chasi 4, Tashkent, Uzbekistan

Academician A.P. Derevianko’s longterm studies are summarized in the first four volumes of his monograph on three global human migrations in Eurasia. The routes whereby early humans dispersed from Africa and eventually spread over nearly entire Eurasia are reconstructed, and numerous empirical and theoretical problems stemming from these reconstructions are convincingly resolved. Derevianko headed the excavations of Paleolithic sites scattered across vast territories of Asia. Especially important are the discoveries in the Altai. This work has raised a number of questions of key importance, for which no universally accepted answers have been given so far. Based on the hominin fossil record and having critically examined the principal hypotheses and proposals concerning both biological and cultural aspects of human evolution, A.P. Derevianko has come up with his own theory of the origin of the genus Homo, originating from Australopithecines. Some groups of the latter are believed to have been mentally predisposed for developing cumulative knowledge relating to lithic technologies and other aspects of culture. One of these aspects is the behavior relating to the interment of the dead—the first specifically human cultural trait, documented since the final Acheulean. Human migrations involve a plexus of issues: properties of the raw material affecting lithic industries, and the extreme environmental variability peculiar to the largest continent. Despite the exponential growth of publications addressing human evolution, Derevianko’s conclusions, both empirical and theoretical, outlined in the first volumes of his summarizing work, retain a key importance.

Keywords: Paleolithic, hominins, genus Homo, Australopithecines, lithic industries, migrations