Pages: 45-104

The paper discusses the evolutionary continuity model as applied to the Middle to Upper Palaeolithic tradition in Altai. The main propositions of the model are criticized, and an alternative hypothesis, based on the analysis of archaeological materials and their stratigraphic contexts, is discussed. Using a complex of multidisciplinary data, the authors propose a development model which assigns the key role to the global climate fluctuations of the Upper Pleistocene. These fluctuations had a fundamental influence on hominin migrations and occasional “visits” to high “cold” latitudes of Central Asia. On the territory of Gorny Altai, several such episodes of residence of ancient human populations (H. denisovan, H. neanderthalensis and H. sapiens sapiens) have been recorded, which left different traces of life activity, mainly in the form of industries with different technical and typological features.

Keywords: Altai, Middle Palaeolithic, Levallois method, Initial Upper Palaeolithic, evolutionary model, stratigraphy, refitting, paleoecological reconstruction, radiocarbon dating

Information about authors:

Vyacheslav Slavinsky (Novosibirsk, Russian Federation). Candidate of Historical Sciences. Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography. Akademik Lavrentiev Ave., 17, Novosibirsk, 630090, Russian Federation.
E-mail: [email protected]
Alexander Tsybankov (Novosibirsk, Russian Federation). Candidate of Historical Sciences. Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Akademik Lavrentiev Ave., 17, Novosibirsk, 630090, Russian Federation.
E-mail: [email protected]