Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia 52 (4) 2024   doi:10.17746/1563-0110.2024.52.4.003-028

Annotation:  The Peopling of Tajikistan by Homo sapiens denisovan Raptorial Birds as Taphonomic Agents for Small Mammal Remains in Pleistocene Deposits at Tsagaan Agu A New Approach to the Study of Flaking Sequence Integrity Based on the Chagyrskaya Cave Assemblage, Industry of Okladnikov Cave Layer 3 in the Context of the Sibiryachikha Complexes of the Altai Mount Rocks and Their Sources in the Upper Paleolithic of the Altai: Relevance to Bifacial Technologies The Afontova Gora IV (Ovrazhnaya) Site: An Analysis of a Complex with “Ocher” in the Structure of th Human Remains from a Neolithic Burial at Krokhalevka-5 on the Upper Ob: Physical Type and Origin Excavations of a Neolithic Dwelling at Pod Lipami, Primorye, in 1976 Clay-Plaster “Masks” from Mound-Vault Skalnaya 5, Khakassia The First Results of Remote Sensing Studies of Mounds with “Mustaches” in Northern Kulunda, Southwes An Old Mongolian Inscription near the Second (Small) Sulfate Lake in Northern Khakassia as Evidence The World of Migrants from Ryazan in the Post-Reform Period: Methods of Studying Migration and Local Textiles as Product and Symbol. Ritual Gift Exchange Among the Karakalpaks and its Central Asian Par   

The Peopling of Tajikistan by Homo sapiens denisovan

A.P. Derevianko

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

The study published in the previous issue of this journal addressed the dispersal and early morphological and genetic evolution of H. s. denisovan in Iran, following the split of the ancestral taxon H. heidelbergensis into two taxa, Neanderthals and Denisovans, in the Levant ~400 ka BP. The latter taxon was first described owing to the sequencing of DNA extracted from the fragment of the fifth finger phalanx from layer 11.2 of Denisova Cave, Altai. Having left the Levant 400-350 ka BP, Denisovans began to spread via Iran to Central Asia and eventually to the Altai. Humans appeared in Denisova Cave ~300 ka BP, having crossed vast territories of Central Asia different in terms of environment, climate, landscape, flora and fauna, and partly populated by aborigines—the late populations of H. erectus. Adapting to changing environments, assimilating native humans, and undergoing natural selection, H. s. denisovan evolved both genetically and morphologically. Here, the spread of Denisovans in Tajikistan will be discussed.

Keywords: H. erectus, H. s. denisovan, H. s. neanderthalensis, Early (Lower) Paleolithic, Middle Paleolithic, Upper Paleolithic, Acheulean industry