More about Diring Yuriakh: Unsolved geoarchaeological problems at a “lower” paleolithic site in central Siberia

Abstract

The geoarchaeology of Diring Yuriakh, perhaps the oldest firmly documented archaeological site in Siberia, at more than 260,000 years old, is important for modeling the peopling of Northern Asia and North America. This article focuses on some important details about the stratigraphy of the Diring site, which have previously only been published in Russian. There are two major geoarchaeological problems at Diring. First, the stratigraphic position of the layer containing the supposed pebble tools (relative to Middle Pleistocene sediments at the site) is not well defined. Second, there remains doubt as to the nature of the association between the majority of the Diring artifacts and the sediments dated to between ca. 267,000 and 366,000 years ago. Until these problems are resolved, the proposed Lower Paleolithic dating for the Diring site must be considered as provisional. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.