Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia 52 (1) 2024   doi:10.17746/1563-0110.2024.52.1.047-057

Annotation:  Origin of Neanderthals. Neanderthals of the Altai: Myth or Reality? The Origin of Biogenic Horizons in the Pleistocene Strata of Denisova Cave: Mineralogical and Geoche Newly Discovered Remains of a Late Upper Paleolithic Dwelling in the Northern Baikal Area: Cultural Sanctuary with “Kalguty” Style Images in Northwestern Mongolia (Preliminary Data) Pottery Traditions Among the Carriers of the Novosibirsk Variant of the Kulaika Culture: A Multidis Origin and Date of Cast-Iron Moldboards from Southern Siberia The Wanyan Digunai (Wanyan Zhong, Esikui) Funerary Complex in Primorye Cultural Horizons at the Uyelgi Cemetery Mound 11, Southeastern Urals Types of Construction Nails from Markul, Abkhazia (Based on Metallographic Analysis) A Log Structure in the Northern Palisade of Fort Umrevinsky An Archaeobotanical Study of the Bukhta Nakhodka Fort, the Yamal Peninsula (13th to Early 14th Centu Archaeological and Anthropological Study on the Grave of Eunuch-Offi cial Couple Serving for a Royal Traditional Bow of the Selenga Buryats (Based on a 2019 Field Study)   

Newly Discovered Remains of a Late Upper Paleolithic Dwelling
in the Northern Baikal Area:
Cultural Horizon 3/2 at Kovrizhka IV on the Vitim River

A.V. Tetenkin¹, A. Henry², E. Gauvrit Roux³, E.I. Demonterova⁴, and I.I. Razgildeeva⁵

¹Irkutsk National Research Technical University, Lermontova 83, Irkutsk, 664074, Russia

²Universite Cote d’Azur, CNRS UMR 7264 CEPAM, 24 Avenue des Diables Bleus, Nice, 06300, France

³Fondation Fyssen, 194 rue de Rivoli, Paris, 75001, France Zooscan, IRL 2013, CNRS, 3 rue Michel Ange, Paris, 75016, France

⁴Institute of the Earth’s Crust, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, Lermontova 128, Irkutsk, 664033, Russia

⁵Transbaikal State University, Aleksandro-Zavodskaya 30, Chita, 672039, Russia

We describe a new complex of remains in cultural horizon 3/2 of the Kovrizhka IV site on the Vitim River in the Baikal-Patom Highlands. This feature is a cluster of archaeological remains near the hearth, enclosed by an oval pavement 4.7 m by 3.2 m, consisting of eight slabs. The feature is interpreted as the remains of a dwelling. The spatial arrangement of finds is described. Rather than taking a central position, the hearth is shifted to the probable entrance in the northeastern part. Under one of the slabs of the pavement, an ocher spot was found. Qualitative and typological characteristics of the artifact assemblage are provided. The feature yielded about 2400 lithic artifacts. On the basis of the use-wear study of selected artifacts, four retouched and unretouched flakes are identified as knives. Other tools include a biface-wedge-shaped core, a bifacial scraper-knife, two fragments of unifacial scraper-like tools, a cutting tool, and retouched flakes (altogether 12 spec.). There are also three wedge-shaped narrow-faced microcores, one of which was knapped from a bifacial preform, and two from flakes. The comparison with two dwellings and a hearth complex previously discovered at Kovrizhka IV, the results of AMS-dating (the age of the complex is estimated at ca 18.9-18.6 ka BP), and the analysis of lithics have shown that the site belongs to the early stage of the Late Upper Paleolithic of the Lower Vitim. Anthracological data indicate a tundra-steppe landscape with islets of shrubs (dwarf or shrubby willow). We conclude that the dwelling evidences a short-term occupation episode. Along with the previously excavated features of Kovrizhka IV, the complex in cultural horizon 3/2 gives an idea of the culture and subsistence strategies of the Late Upper Paleolithic people at the end of the Last Glacial Maximum.

Keywords: Late Upper Paleolithic, Last Glacial Maximum, dwelling, hearth, microblade knapping, ocher