TY - JOUR
T1 - Preference for Porphyry
T2 - Petrographic Insights into Lithic Raw Material Procurement from Palaeolithic Kazakhstan
AU - Namen, Abay
AU - Schmidt, Patrick
AU - Varis, Aristeidis
AU - Taimagambetov, Zhaken
AU - Iovita, Radu
N1 - Funding Information:
We would like to thank Dean Mendigul Nogaibaeva, Prof. Gani Omarov, and Dr. Rinat Zhumatayev, Aigerim Yessenamanova, and Symbat Sagyndykova (Department of Archaeology, Ethnology and Museology, Faculty of History, Al Farabi Kazakhstan National University) for their support of this work. A. Namen would like to thank Firas Jabbour for help with lithic studies and Nurdaulet “Shapalaq” Myrzatai for driving us safely in the piedmonts of the mountain ranges and vast Kazakh steppes, as well as Prof. Dr. Christopher Miller for his support of this research and access to the equipment of the laboratory for Geoarchaeology at the Institute for Archaeological Sciences (INA) at the University of Tübingen. The current study was performed within the PALAEOSILKROAD project, and all field research was conducted under license No. 15008746 (12.05.2015) of the National Museum of the Republic of Kazakhstan, based on the collaboration protocol between the Eberhard-Karls University of Tübingen and the National Museum. This project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (grant agreement n° 714842; PALAEOSILKROAD project). A. Namen received financial support from the Leakey Foundation to conduct a lithic raw material survey and sample preparation within the Ph.D. dissertation project grant “Lithic technology and raw material variability in the Inner Asian Mountain Corridor of Kazakhstan.”
Funding Information:
We would like to thank Dean Mendigul Nogaibaeva, Prof. Gani Omarov, and Dr. Rinat Zhumatayev, Aigerim Yessenamanova, and Symbat Sagyndykova (Department of Archaeology, Ethnology and Museology, Faculty of History, Al Farabi Kazakhstan National University) for their support of this work. A. Namen would like to thank Firas Jabbour for help with lithic studies and Nurdaulet “Shapalaq” Myrzatai for driving us safely in the piedmonts of the mountain ranges and vast Kazakh steppes, as well as Prof. Dr. Christopher Miller for his support of this research and access to the equipment of the laboratory for Geoarchaeology at the Institute for Archaeological Sciences (INA) at the University of Tübingen. The current study was performed within the PALAEOSILKROAD project, and all field research was conducted under license No. 15008746 (12.05.2015) of the National Museum of the Republic of Kazakhstan, based on the collaboration protocol between the Eberhard-Karls University of Tübingen and the National Museum. This project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (grant agreement n° 714842; PALAEOSILKROAD project). A. Namen received financial support from the Leakey Foundation to conduct a lithic raw material survey and sample preparation within the Ph.D. dissertation project grant “Lithic technology and raw material variability in the Inner Asian Mountain Corridor of Kazakhstan.”
Publisher Copyright:
© Trustees of Boston University 2022.
PY - 2022
Y1 - 2022
N2 - Only a handful of stratified sites are known in loess, spring, and river contexts in the northern piedmonts of the Tian Shan, and the majority are dated to the Upper Palaeolithic. These sites have been studied from a geoarchaeological perspective; however, lithic procurement activities remain unknown. To address this deficiency, we present the results of the extensive field surveys aimed at locating prehistoric raw material sources in the Inner Asian Mountain Corridor of Kazakhstan. We also provide a detailed petrographic description of the lithologies exploited during the Palaeolithic of Kazakhstan. Based on the field survey results, combined with petrographic data, we conclude that the direct procurement strategy was the most common at the stratified sites. However, evidence of both direct and embedded procurement is found in the northern piedmonts of the Ili Alatau range at the site of Maibulaq. Additionally, we highlight the variation of chert lithologies within the larger Qaratau region, laying a foundation for future provenance studies.
AB - Only a handful of stratified sites are known in loess, spring, and river contexts in the northern piedmonts of the Tian Shan, and the majority are dated to the Upper Palaeolithic. These sites have been studied from a geoarchaeological perspective; however, lithic procurement activities remain unknown. To address this deficiency, we present the results of the extensive field surveys aimed at locating prehistoric raw material sources in the Inner Asian Mountain Corridor of Kazakhstan. We also provide a detailed petrographic description of the lithologies exploited during the Palaeolithic of Kazakhstan. Based on the field survey results, combined with petrographic data, we conclude that the direct procurement strategy was the most common at the stratified sites. However, evidence of both direct and embedded procurement is found in the northern piedmonts of the Ili Alatau range at the site of Maibulaq. Additionally, we highlight the variation of chert lithologies within the larger Qaratau region, laying a foundation for future provenance studies.
KW - Inner Asian Mountain Corridor
KW - PALAEOSILKROAD
KW - chert
KW - geoarchaeological survey
KW - petrography
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U2 - 10.1080/00934690.2022.2092265
DO - 10.1080/00934690.2022.2092265
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85133417563
SN - 0093-4690
VL - 47
SP - 435
EP - 450
JO - Journal of Field Archaeology
JF - Journal of Field Archaeology
IS - 7
ER -