Cultural Layer in the Stone Age Sites of Northeastern Siberia

Abstract

The phenomenon of the cultural layer is a fundamental concept of archaeology and the main object of study in the practice of field research. Despite this, its definition, surprisingly, still remains undeveloped. The widely known classical definition leaves many important questions unanswered. Thus, what about the horizon, formed in the past by redeposition of material, especially if this is not obvious? Can the bone-bearing horizon (for example, bone deposit of the mammoth “graveyard”) definitely human-created but lacking (completely or almost completely) of formal artifacts be regarded as a cultural layer? What about areas of primary archaeological contexts, the elements of which retain their original structure and interconnection, but have lost their original spatial position along with the block of matrix sediments? In similar cases, except for burial structures, the concept of culture-bearing deposits, representing a specific geological formation, will be much more universal. Then culture-bearing deposits are deposits locally enriched with traces of past human activities (artifacts, technological waste, biological remains, structures, i. e., cultural remains sensu lato) as a result of the transfer and accumulation of matter in the process of lithogenesis. It should be emphasized that up to 65 % of the territory of Russia is the permafrost area, while that of the former permafrost zone was significantly larger and included currently unfrozen areas. The culture-bearing deposits of the Stone Age sites of the Late Pleistocene age represented in these regions undoubtedly experienced the impact of cryogenic processes. The study of the Stone Age sites in Eastern Siberia provides the richest opportunities and material for the development of this issue.