La découverte d’un galet gravé du Paléolithique final dans la région du Haut Iénisséï (Sibérie du Sud)

Abstract

The paper deals with the artifact found during the realization of a salvage archaeological project connected with the construction of the railway from Kyzyl to Kuragino (the Krasnoyarsk Region, South Siberia) in 2012. During the exploration of the multicomponent habitation site of Irba 2 below the Holocene cultural strata the Pleistocene remains have been unearthed. These include bones of bison, reindeer, red deer, giant deer, wild horse, brown bear and hare, lithics, and pieces of worked antler. Radiocarbon dates indicate the Final Pleistocene age (ca. 13 to 11 kyr BP). The assemblage belongs to the Afontova culture dominated in the upper reaches of Yenisei during the Final Upper Paleolithic. The rare finding, an unique engraved oval-shaped flat pebble of white marble is worth to mention. It has 37 lateral grooves, cross-shaped engravings in the central parts of both lateral surfaces and traces of unfinished hollows. The nearest analogs are agalmatolite discs from the sites of Afontova Gora II and III located at Krasnoyarsk. These findings are rare in the Paleolithic and could be considered as amulets.