Верхний палеолит предгорий Северного Тянь-Шаня: вопросы хронологии и культурной атрибуции

Abstract

The study of the Upper Paleolithic in the foothills of the Northern Tien Shan has no long history. The first discoveries of archaeological sites of that period were carried out only in the early 21st century. Nevertheless, several sites of the Upper Paleolithic found here are being studied with varying degrees of intensity. The most studied of them are the Maibulak and Rakhat sites. Both sites are multi-layered. The sequences of cultural deposits mutually complement each other. The cultural layers of the sites lie in multi-meter deposits of loess-like loams. The specificity of sedimentation significantly influenced the high degree of preservation of cultural remains. At different levels such features as: charcoal spots, burn spots, hearths, storage pits were found. This fact, with a high degree of probability, indicates the undisturbed pattern of the archaeological complexes in each of the cultural layers. The remains of settlements of the Early Upper Paleolithic (~40,000-28,000 years ago) are most clearly represented on the Maibulak site. The Rakhat site was actively populated in the Middle Upper Paleolithic and at the beginning of the Late Upper Paleolithic (~28,000-19,000 years ago). Based on the archaeological data, it can be concluded that the development of the Upper Paleolithic in the region as a cultural unit lies in the same stream of evolutionary direction with the western part of Eurasia. The significant originality is noted in the lithic assemblages of different stages of the Upper Paleolithic. Thus, the study of the Upper Paleolithic in this territory, located between the large cultural areas of Europe, Western Asia, on the one hand, and Siberia, East Asia, on the other, is of great scientific importance.