TY - JOUR
T1 - A chronological framework connecting the early Upper Palaeolithic across the Central Asian piedmont
AU - Fitzsimmons, Kathryn E.
AU - Iovita, Radu
AU - Sprafke, Tobias
AU - Glantz, Michelle
AU - Talamo, Sahra
AU - Horton, Katharine
AU - Beeton, Tyler
AU - Alipova, Saya
AU - Bekseitov, Galymzhan
AU - Ospanov, Yerbolat
AU - Deom, Jean Marc
AU - Sala, Renato
AU - Taimagambetov, Zhaken
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by seed funding from the Max Planck Society (KEF) and the Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum (RGZM) (RI). RI thanks the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD) for additional travel funding. We thank Professor Jean-Jacques Hublin and Professor Sabine Gaudzinski-Windheuser for their support of this project. We wish to thank Steffi Hesse for luminescence dating sample preparation. Thanks to Zachary Cofran, Jason LaBelle, Sayat Temirbekov and Adam van Arsdale for their assistance in the field.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 Elsevier Ltd
PY - 2017/12
Y1 - 2017/12
N2 - Central Asia has delivered significant paleoanthropological discoveries in the past few years. New genetic data indicate that at least two archaic human species met and interbred with anatomically modern humans as they arrived into northern Central Asia. However, data are limited: known archaeological sites with lithic assemblages generally lack human fossils, and consequently identifying the archaeological signatures of different human groups, and the timing of their occupation, remains elusive. Reliable chronologic data from sites in the region, crucial to our understanding of the timing and duration of interactions between different human species, are rare. Here we present chronologies for two open air Middle to Upper Palaeolithic (UP) sequences from the Tien Shan piedmont in southeast Kazakhstan, Maibulak and Valikhanova, which bridge southern and northern Central Asia. The chronologies, based on both quartz optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) and polymineral post-infrared infrared luminescence (pIR-IRSL) protocols, demonstrate that technological developments at the two sites differ substantially over the ∼47–19 ka time span. Some of the innovations typically associated with the earliest UP in the Altai or other parts of northeast Asia are also present in the Tien Shan piedmont. We caution against making assumptions about the directionality of spread of these technologies until a larger, better defined database of transitional sites in the region is available. Connections between the timing of occupation of regions, living area setting and paleoenvironmental conditions, while providing hypotheses worth exploring, remain inconclusive. We cautiously suggest a trend towards increasing occupation of open air sites across the Central Asian piedmont after ∼40 ka, corresponding to more humid climatic conditions which nevertheless included pulses of dust deposition. Human occupation persisted into the Last Glacial Maximum, despite cooler, and possibly drier, conditions. Our results thus provide additional data to substantiate arguments for occupation of Central Asia.
AB - Central Asia has delivered significant paleoanthropological discoveries in the past few years. New genetic data indicate that at least two archaic human species met and interbred with anatomically modern humans as they arrived into northern Central Asia. However, data are limited: known archaeological sites with lithic assemblages generally lack human fossils, and consequently identifying the archaeological signatures of different human groups, and the timing of their occupation, remains elusive. Reliable chronologic data from sites in the region, crucial to our understanding of the timing and duration of interactions between different human species, are rare. Here we present chronologies for two open air Middle to Upper Palaeolithic (UP) sequences from the Tien Shan piedmont in southeast Kazakhstan, Maibulak and Valikhanova, which bridge southern and northern Central Asia. The chronologies, based on both quartz optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) and polymineral post-infrared infrared luminescence (pIR-IRSL) protocols, demonstrate that technological developments at the two sites differ substantially over the ∼47–19 ka time span. Some of the innovations typically associated with the earliest UP in the Altai or other parts of northeast Asia are also present in the Tien Shan piedmont. We caution against making assumptions about the directionality of spread of these technologies until a larger, better defined database of transitional sites in the region is available. Connections between the timing of occupation of regions, living area setting and paleoenvironmental conditions, while providing hypotheses worth exploring, remain inconclusive. We cautiously suggest a trend towards increasing occupation of open air sites across the Central Asian piedmont after ∼40 ka, corresponding to more humid climatic conditions which nevertheless included pulses of dust deposition. Human occupation persisted into the Last Glacial Maximum, despite cooler, and possibly drier, conditions. Our results thus provide additional data to substantiate arguments for occupation of Central Asia.
KW - Kazakhstan
KW - Luminescence dating
KW - Middle to Upper Paleolithic transition
KW - Open air sites
KW - Tien Shan
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U2 - 10.1016/j.jhevol.2017.07.006
DO - 10.1016/j.jhevol.2017.07.006
M3 - Article
C2 - 29054162
AN - SCOPUS:85033395235
SN - 0047-2484
VL - 113
SP - 107
EP - 126
JO - Journal of Human Evolution
JF - Journal of Human Evolution
ER -