Pages: 105-116

Starting with the second half of the 20th century, the Upper Palaeolithic of Western Transbaikalia has been considered from contrary points of view: monocultural — multicultural; being a whole with Mongolian, Altaian and Central Asian Palaeolithic industries — formed on the local base but typologically similar to the Palaeolithic on the indicated territories. One of the latest concepts propose to envisage the origin of the Western Transbaikal Upper Palaeolithic with blade industry in the base as the result of the ancient peoples’ migration from the Mountain Altai region. According to this model, the relationship between the Initial Upper Palaeolithic of Altai region and Tolbaga Palaeolithic culture is observed. The article represents the comparative analyses of the criterions, which constitute the base of migration concept of Transbaikal Upper Palaeolithic origin; the main Tolbaga culture characteristics, uniform and distinctive features comparing with the sites of Mongolia and Altai are offered. Concerning the Western Transbaikal Upper Palaeolithic blade industry’s origin, a comparative characterization is made with the Levantine sites where the earliest and well-recorded blade industries of the Initial Upper Palaeolithic are revealed. The results of comparisons allowed us to make a conclusion about the possibility of the Tolbaga culture origin from the region of the Near East through the western part of the Central Asia during the peoples’ migration along the North route of the anatomically modern human dispersal.

Keywords: Western Transbaikalia, Initial Upper Palaeolithic, stone industry, migrations, blade industry, Tolbaga culture

Information about authors:

Vasilii Tashak (Ulan-Ude, Russian Federation). Candidate of Historical Sciences. Institute for Mongolian, Buddhist, and Tibetan Studies of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Sakhyanova St., 6, Ulan-Ude, 670047, Republic of Buryatia, Russian Federation.
E-mail: [email protected]
Yuliya Antonova (Ulan-Ude, Russian Federation). 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]