Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia 51 (3) 2023   doi:10.17746/1563-0110.2023.51.3.032-039

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   

On the Attribution of Lithic Industry
from the Early Paleolithic Site of Bogatyri/Sinyaya Balka,
the Taman Peninsula

S.A. Kulakov

Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, Pr. Akademika Lavrentieva 17, Novosibirsk, 630090, Russia

Institute for the History of Material Culture, Russian Academy of Sciences, Dvortsovaya nab. 18, St. Petersburg, 191186, Russia

The study describes and compares lithic artifacts from the Early Paleolithic site of Bogatyri/Sinyaya Balka, as well as those collected in coastal screes and on the nearby beach. Interdisciplinary studies, which have been ongoing at the site for more than 20 years, have made it possible to conclude that the age of the site exceeds 1 mln years, and that it was a butchering place. In the Early Pleistocene, a lacustral crater of a mud volcano was situated nearby. This mud marsh was a place where many large mammals such as Taman elephants and Caucasian elasmotheres bathed and perished. Humans procured them before they had drowned, and butchered them, as evidenced by the specific toolkit. The industry of the site is attributed to the Taman variety of the Oldowan stage of the Early Paleolithic. As the comparative analysis indicates, lithics from the screes and from the beach near the site are morphologically different from those at the site. The rocks of which they are made are of a higher quality, and the types are more expressive, which especially concerns cores and spalls. This industry should be attributed to the Taman variety of the Acheulean stage of the Early Paleolithic.

Keywords: Early Paleolithic, Northern Eurasia, Oldowan and Acheulean technological stages, Taman Peninsula, Bogatyri/Sinyaya Balka, lithic industry