Personal ornaments as markers of social behavior, technological development and cultural phenomena in the Siberian early upper Paleolithic

Abstract

Here, the author presents a new perspective on the ways in which unique finds classified as personal ornaments in Early Upper Paleolithic collections from Siberia should be analyzed and interpreted. Such objects represent both a form of technological development and social communication. The specific features of the Middle to Upper Paleolithic transition in southern Siberia include prolonged survival of Middle Paleolithic forms and convergence with the appearance and evolution of Aurignac-style elements. The general picture of the Initial and Early Upper Paleolithic in Siberia is a mosaic combination of stone reduction technologies, bone and antler processing, as well as an amazing variety of fossil materials representing various species within the genus Homo. Forms of modern symbolic behavior look rather stable in the archaeological context of the Early Upper Paleolithic of northern Eurasia between 40,000–50,000 years ago. This is especially true of personal ornaments, which constitute symbolic nominal systems. I suggest that forms, raw material, technologies, and types of personal ornaments in Siberian collections are not limited chronologically to the Early Upper Paleolithic, and were replicated later. Based on studies of various objects made during the Early Upper Paleolithic in Siberia, a preliminary classification is proposed, presented in the form of a typological table of features incorporating forms and techniques for manufacturing items of personal adornment.