Paleolithic Site Tri Skaly in Western Transbaikalia as a Hunter-Gatherers’ Base Camp

Abstract

Purpose. In 2015 a new archaeological site Tri Skaly were found in the lower part of the Khilock River basin (Western Transbaikalia). This site is of a large interest in the sense of investigations concerned early stages of the Upper Palaeolithic in Transbaikal, because it is westernmost among similar sites and located in the area where such sites were not known earlier. The purpose of this investigation is defining the functional purpose of the ancient settlement. Discrete approach to the data analysis lead to the controversial conclusions. The article presents the results of the complex approach to the investigations of palaeolithic cultural horizons at Tri Skaly archaeological site.Results. In the Tri Skaly collection the most representative and various part of the archaeological finds consists of the stone artifacts typical for the early Upper Paleolithic period. On the basis of the stone industry consideration the affinity with the Tolbaga culture’s Paleolithic sites is proposed; it is reflected in the production of tools on the large blades. The well-investigated sites of this culture show the representative toolkit and the multi-way economic activity at the ancient settlement. The obvious predominance of primary knapping products over retouched items suggests the use of the area as a workshop, or camp workshop if we take into consideration the presence of some structural elements of the cultural horizon. Paleontological materials demonstrate the overwhelming majority of the Equus Ferus bones, the distal ends of the legs. This fact leads to the conclusion that this area was used as the kill and butchering site. At the same time, we have evidence that allows us to interpret bones as possible kitchen debris, not only wastes from butchering. In addition, a toolkit includes various types of tools related to different activities.Conclusion. The detailed analysis and synthesis of all available components from the Paleolithic site Tri Skaly (stone industry, palaeontological finds) evidence about multi-way economic activity here in Upper Palaeolithic. Based on this we conclude Tri Skaly site is a periodically used base hunting camp with a full cycle of stone processing and tool production and evidences of non-utilitarian activity.