Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia 53 (1) 2025   doi:10.17746/1563-0110.2025.53.1.025-033

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Microblade Production in the Sukhotino-4 Industry, Eastern Transbaikalia

V.I. Tashak¹ and E.V. Kovychev^{2, 3}

¹Institute for Mongolian, Buddhist and Tibetan Studies, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, Sakhyanovoy 6, Ulan-Ude, 670047, Russia

²Transbaikal State University, Aleksandro-Zavodskaya 30, Chita, 672039, Russia

³Institute of History, Archaeology and Ethnography of the Peoples of the Far East, Far Eastern Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, Pushkinskaya 89, Vladivostok, 690001, Russia

We have analyzed microblade production at Sukhotino-4, a stratified site in the southern part of Chita, Eastern Transbaikalia, excavated in the 1970s and 1980s. Its lithic industry specialized in bifacial tools and, to a large extent, in microblades and tools made on them. The sample includes over 300 cores and their preforms intended for manufacturing microblades and found in eleven layers. On the basis of morphological and typological analyses, we reveal an absolute predominance of narrow-faced microcores, including wedge-shaped ones. Most microcores from all layers of Sukhotino-4 were made according to a standard scheme, which concerned all stages, from the choice of blanks to the use of the core. The analysis of metric parameters suggests that most microcores have a frontal height of 25-30 mm and a width of 9-11 mm. The predominance of a single standard in the preparation of blanks and in the utilization of cores allowed us to describe the Sukhotino type of narrow-faced microcores. Other types are represented by just a few specimens. Morphological and typological homogeneity of most microcores and bifacial tools from all layers, correlating with the Sartan glacial cooling, suggests that the Upper Paleolithic industry of Sukhotino-4 existed for a long time.

Keywords: Upper Paleolithic, lithic industry, microblades, narrow-faced cores, Transbaikalia, Sartan cooling