Les plus anciennes industries paléolithiques en Russie

Abstract

Early Paleolithic sites (Oldowan and Acheulian) in the European part of Russia are concentrated in the southern part of the Russian plain, in the piedmont of the Caucasus and in the North Caucasus, south from 50N latitude. The Taman Paleolithic complex (sites of Bogatyri/Sinyaya Balka, Rodniki 1 and 2, Kermek; and localities of Tsymbal, Lisy and Peresyp), Akushin Paleolithic complex in Central Dagestan (sites of Aynikab 1, Mukhkay 1 and 2) and complex of sites in Maritime Dagestan (sites of Rubas 1, Darvagchay 1, Darvagchay-Zaliv 1 and 4) are discovered and studied. The initial human settlement of southern Russia began about 2 Ma and went through the Caucasian isthmus along the western shore of the Caspian Sea. The most ancient Homo of the first wave of settlement from the African ancestral homeland was able to reach the Caucasus and the southern part of the Russian plain by 2 Ma, as confirmed by the Liventsovka locality in the city of Rostov-on-Don. The Acheulian is represented by stratified sites of the Early Acheulian on the territory of Dagestan. At present, it can be argued that the territory of southern Russia was part of the area of initial human settlement from Africa. It is more difficult to estimate the time and ways of the initial human settlement of Northern Asia. The few sites attributed to the Lower Paleolithic are, for the most part, geologically unconnected or are questioned as to the authenticity of the artifacts. The only clearly stratified Middle Pleistocene site, Karama in the Altai, delivered a pebble tool industry. In addition, the finds of bifaces in Tuva, near the Mongolian border mark the northern limit of the distribution of the Acheulian in Asia.