PATTERNS OF CULTURE CHANGE IN EASTERN SIBERIA DURING THE PLEISTOCENE–HOLOCENE TRANSITION

Abstract

Abstract Eastern Siberia is located between 40° and 75° N latitude, and 100° E and 170° W longitude. In this region, approximately 60 archaeological sites chronometrically date to the period of Pleistocene–Holocene transition (38 Upper Paleolithic sites older than 10,000 BP and 22 Mesolithic sites that date between 10,000 and 8000 BP). This study examines the nature and timing of Upper Paleolithic and Mesolithic culture change during the Pleistocene–Holocene transition. Cultural changes consist of four distinctive chronoclines in the archaeological record: (1) late Pleistocene big game animals disappeared from the archaeological record gradually from one species to the next, the largest first and the smallest last; (2) blade, core, and flake tools faded with the extirpation or extinction of large gregarious Pleistocene herbivores; (3) microblade technology appeared with the exploitation of a new suite of smaller, less gregarious game animals; and (4) the development of ground stone tools occurred after subsistence strategies shifted away from big game animals. The latter pattern was most likely associated with an increase in the procurement of plant food resources available in terminal Pleistocene and early Holocene forests.