Abstract
This study describes a part of the Paleolithic bone industry of Denisova Cave—the site that is key for understanding a complex interaction between various groups of early humans and the Middle to Upper Paleolithic transition. The Initial Upper Paleolithic layers of the cave yielded fossil remains of Denisovans, and the earliest ornaments and bone tools in North and Central Asia. The principal objective of this study is to analyze unshaped bone tools from the Late Middle and Initial Upper Paleolithic from the East Chamber of the cave. Among more than I0 thousand bone fragments, subdivided into three groups in terms of taphonomic, technical, and utilization traces, 5I specimens were selected for study. On the basis of location of use-wear traces that varied according to function, unshaped bone tools such as retouchers, awls, intermediate tools, and knives were revealed for the first time in Denisova Cave. The results of the morphological and use-wear analysis suggest that those tools were used for processing organic materials such as leather, plantfibers, and wood. Unshaped tools indicate a developed industry that preceded, or was contemporaneous with, the formal types of tools—polished points and eyed needles.
Highlights
The issue of the Upper Paleolithic culture origins still remains debatable, since the picture of evolutionary development created on the basis of European materials is not considered universal any more
Unshaped bone tools were divided into three categories in terms of localization of wear traces and manifestations of characteristics that allow the functional purpose of items to be determined
Unshaped bone tools discovered in layers 11.4–11.2 in the East Chamber of Denisova Cave are small in number; these are evidence of a developed industry rather than randomly picked bone splinters remaining after butchering animal carcasses and used to retouch stone tools
Summary
The issue of the Upper Paleolithic culture origins still remains debatable, since the picture of evolutionary development created on the basis of European materials is not considered universal any more. Archaeological and anthropological materials from Denisova Cave are indicative of the gradual evolutionary development of behavioral traits typical of anatomically modern humans on the basis of local culture (Derevianko, 2010) This process is reflected by the stone industry and by the bone. Mitochondrial and nuclear DNA recovered from anthropological remains and cave deposits belongs to Denisovans and Neanderthals (Slon et al, 2017) This fact suggests that the transition to the Upper Paleolithic proceeded here on the basis of local Middle Paleolithic culture, as for example at the Arcy-sur-Cure site in France, judging by the results of analysis of the bone industry and ornaments from the Chatelperronian layer of this cave (D’Errico et al, 2003)
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