Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia 52 (3) 2024   doi:10.17746/1563-0110.2024.52.3

Annotation:  The Origin of H. s. denisovan and Their Dispersal Across Iran Methodological Issues in Pollen Analysis of Pleistocene Deposits in Denisova Cave Small Blade and Bladelet Production in Central Asia at the Turn of MIS 7 and 6: Cores from Kulbulak Identification of Adhesives for Repairing Ancient Ceramics: The Case of the Neolithic and Chalcolith Slag Inclusions in Iron Artifacts from Cemeteries at Kichigino I and Krasnaya Gorka, and the Metallu Radiocarbon Chronology and Isotope Data of Ust-Tartasskiye Kurgany Mound 51, the Baraba Forest-Stepp Raw Materials in the Paste of Ceramics of the Kulaika Culture Surgut Variant (Based on Samples from A Bronze Age Site on the Northern Coast of West Java Microstructural Study of Medieval Crucible Steels from Archaeological Sites in Central and Northwest Textiles from the Ust-Voikary Hillfort Site (Based on Materials from 2012–2016 Excavations) Shaman Tambourines of the Northern Ob Ugrians (18th to Early 21st Centuries) Principal Results of the Project Implemented by the Research and Educational Center for Altaic and T Bony Labyrinth in Upper Paleolithic Individuals Buried at Sungir The Structure of the Late Bronze Age Population of Western Siberia: Craniometric Evidence Affinities of the Sargat Population in the Baraba Forest-Steppe Application of the Decision Tree Method for Differentiating Human Groups   

The Origin of H. s. denisovan and Their Dispersal Across Iran

A.P. Derevianko

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

Before the early 2000s, anthropologists spoke of two taxa existing in the Late Middle and Early Upper Pleistocene: anatomically modern humans in Africa and Neanderthals associated with the Mousterian industry in Eurasia. Therefore, all Eurasian Paleolithic sites dating to that period were believed to be Mousterian and were associated with Neanderthals. In 2010, owing to the sequencing of mtDNA from a fragment of the distal phalanx of the hand found in Denisova Cave, a third species was introduced, genetically different from both anatomically modern humans and Neanderthals. This new taxon was termed H. s. denisovan—or simply Denisovan. Further studies showed that this population dispersed in the Late Middle and Early Upper Pleistocene across vast territories of Central and Southeast Asia. A question arose as to where Denisovans had originated and which routes they had taken to get to the Altai. A series of articles forthcoming in this journal will address these questions. The first of them focuses on the origin of Denisovans on the basis of H. heidelbergensis and on their migration via Iran to Central Asia.

Keywords: H. heidelbergensis, H. s. neanderthalensis, H. s. denisovan, Early and Middle Paleolithic industries