ACTA UNIVERSITATIS WRATISLAVIENSIS No 3207
Studia Archeologiczne XLI
Wrocław 2010
NICOLAS ROLLAND1
THE EARLY HUMAN OCCUPATION OF HIGH LATITUDES,
BOREAL, CONTINENTAL AND PERIGLACIAL HABITATS:
MIDDLE PALAEOLITHIC MILESTONES
IN NORTHERN EURASIA
The first “ice-age hunters”, living in an open landscape and hunting “cold” animals (reindeer, mammoth) arrive in the Middle Palaeolithic. The settlement of
the “cold” loess-steppe rich in animals requires a better mastery of environment
(habitation, clothing) than life in a “warm” biotope.
(G. Bosinski 1982: 167)
...l’immense existence..., sur des dizaines de méridiens et sur plus de trente
parallèles, de paléo-systèmes culturels, dont les dimensions quasi-décuples, la
vitalité, la continuité et la cohésion évolutives peuvent progressivement imposer
d’admettre qu’il s’agit bien là du dispositif central ou principal de manifestation
et d’expression du paléolithique de l’hémisphère nord.
(D. Nat 1972: 210)
INTRODUCTION
In contrast with other primates, an outstanding characteristic of the human
species since Early Pleistocene times has been a capacity to disperse and occupy
a wide range of different biomes and ecosystems (Kummer 1971: 143–144). By
the end of the Pleistocene ancient hominids had settled all of Africa and Eurasia,
spread into the Americas, and colonized Western Oceania and Australasia by
navigation. This rather unique geographic expansion illustrates ecological polymorphism, as well as behavioural adaptability. Another major cause, however,
remained intrinsically non-biological, namely relying on cultural means (technological, societal, cognitive).
Peopling high latitudes and cold continental regions required overcoming
significant climatic barriers (Whiting et al. 1982) that depended on these cultural
means. An omnivorous capacity for procuring food resources at different levels of
1
Department of Anthropology, University of Victoria, Canada; e-mail: [email protected].
2
Nicolas Rolland
the trophic pyramid, including greater reliance on a carnivorous diet, was another
adaptive asset when colonizing higher latitudes in Eurasia under changing Pleistocene conditions. This event is discussed with reference to the Middle Palaeolithic record. The evidence is reviewed by stressing: (a) human biogeography that
highlights a significant linkage between Middle Palaeolithic cultural repertoires
and the Mammoth-Steppe Biome, and its fluctuating boundaries during the Pleistocene, as a natural infrastructure; (b) time perspectivism for observing ecological
and cultural changes over time spans of sufficient duration to show processes and
trends. It is concluded that “the peopling of the North” had a considerably greater
time depth than previously thought, and that the Middle Palaeolithic represented
a significant development threshold of this colonization event.
EARLIER OCCUPATION STAGES IN EURASIA
The earliest confirmed fossil human and/or Palaeolithic evidence of the hominid colonization of Eurasia dates to the Early Pleistocene, though without consensus regarding a precise chronometric datum within 1.6–1.2 Ma. Key occurrences
are represented by ‘Ubeidiya (Israel), Dmanisi (Transcaucasus), the Dina, Jalalpur
and Pabbi Hills finds (Pakistan Siwaliks), the Nihewan Basin (North China), and
the Mojokerto and Sangiran fossil humans (Java). Dmanisi and the Nihewan occurrences represented the northernmost limits of that initial expansion, 44° N and
ca. 40° N, respectively. In Europe, the oldest evidence comes from Atapuerca
Gran Dolina, northern Spain (ca. 850 ka, 42° N), Pont-de-Lavaud, at the northern
edge of the French Massif Central (>1.0 m [?], 45° N), and Pakefield, England (ca.
700 ka, 52° N).
All other evidence found above or near 50° N, like Miesenheim, Mauer, Boxgrove, Abbeville, etc. are dateable to ca. 600–500 ka, and were occupied only during interglacials. Pont-de-Lavaud may coincide with a colder palaeoclimate (?),
while in the southern France, the upper Mid-Pleistocene Baume-Bonne and Arago
cave sites contain layers showing settlement during stadial conditions. Kärlich H
base, Neuwied Basin, Germany, however, documents the first bona fide indication
of a human occupation above 50° N in a dry steppe continental setting of Europe
during the Mid-Pleistocene OIS 12 stadial, ca. 400 ka.
Information about the earliest hominid dispersals into mid-latitude continental Eurasia above 50° N, namely southern Siberia, remains provisional, tentatively dated to the Mid-Pleistocene, ca. 430–300 ka (Kuzmin 2000). Palaeolithic evidence consists of pebble tools and flakes occurrences: some possible
artefacts from the Ulalinka and Karama quarry sites, Siberian Altai, Mokhovo I
with a Tiraspol-like fauna, in the Ob’-Yenisei interfluve (Derevianko 1998), Berezhekovo I, Kamenyi Log, during the warm Tobol’ interglacial (390–270 ka),
Yenisei Basin (Drozdov et al. 1999), Diring Yuriakh, 71° N in Sakha (Yakutia),
and Zasukhino, eastern Cis-Baikalia (Lbova 2002).
Middle Palaeolithic milestones in Northern Eurasia
3
ADAPTIVE CONSTRAINTS IN SETTLING HIGH LATITUDE, BOREAL,
PERIGLACIAL, CONTINENTAL AND HYPERCONTINENTAL HABITATS
Ancient hominid groups had to overcome major natural obstacles before
a viable colonization of Northern Eurasia could have become feasible. These
constraints prevailed in high latitude boreal regions, even during mild or warmer
interglacials (Clermont 1974; Zvelebil 1978: 207), as outlined in Table 1.
Because hominids remained by phylogeny primate species of tropical African
origin, they were not anatomically and physiologically equipped for coping
with such climatic barriers without artificial, i.e. cultural means to resolve this
“adaptation paradox”.
Table 1. An outline of adaptive constraints of boreal, periglacial, high latitude, and hypercontinental
habitats
1.
There were generally unstable and unpredictable environments threatening physical survival.
2.
Seasonal contrasts were sharp, with short summers, long cold winters and temperature extremes dropping to between –40° and –60°, as well as rarefied oxygen supplies.
3.
Winter daylight duration could have been reduced to 6 or 9 hours in January.
4.
Under latitudes 56°–72° N, photo periods became short, with severely reduced or halted
primary biomass production, and edible plants were scarce during winters.
5.
The lack of natural fur protection and insufficient thermoregulatory responses in humans
threatened their survival with hypothermia and freezing.
6.
Prolonged frost periods, extensive permafrost zones reduced access to or availability of running water.
7.
Thick snow cover, dense summer or winter fog, ice sheets and glaciers impeded human
mobility.
8.
Recurrent and often rapid Pleistocene bioclimatic fluctuations or oscillations, lasting from
brief duration to lengthy episodes, forced human adaptive flexibility and repeated shifts in
land use strategies.
9.
Acute food shortages or starvation were frequent risks during cold seasons that required increased year-round dependence on animal proteins from small and large land animals, fresh
water aquatic animals and avifauna to insure an adequate intake of calories, dietary fats and
proteins.
Key climatic and adaptive variables consisted in: (1) the boreal variable, defined by reference to south-north latitude gradients; (2) continentality, defined by
meridian gradients, which in Eurasia increase from the west to the east; (3) Pleistocene bioclimatic fluctuations, namely stadials and cold oscillations, interglacials
and interstadial oscillations; (4) geological and geomorphological features like topography, substrata (limestone, volcanic, crystalline), soil properties and mineral
contents; (5) biotic (plants, animals) characteristics and their potential as food or
raw material resources.
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HUMAN BIOGEOGRAPHY
The working concepts that constitute the human biogeographic perspective
are as follows:
Culture. This refers to a hominid behaviour dimension involving operations
by individuals and/or groups transforming the reality of events, objects, features
or activities into their “human reality” by “interpreting” and “attributing meaning” (Santangelo 1995; 1998). This capability has a natural historical origin that
began with the early Homo. It involved a long-term co-evolutionary feedback
between behaviour and the cerebral cortex mantle. Culture is a holistic phenomenon pervading human-habitat-animal-plant relationships, technology, economic
and social organization, cognition and symbolic behaviour. It relaxed or modified
progressively natural selection of human life by creating a new “environment” or
“margin” mediating nature and behaviour (Benoist 1965: 898–899). Researchers
noted long ago that culture shared with domesticated animals, such as the “cultural protection” of animals that created an artificial environment screening against
natural selection. Furthermore, J. F. Blumenbach (1752–1840) pointed out that
hominids remained the only self-domesticating species.
Human Ecology. Quaternary research shows that Pleistocene environments,
especially during stadials and interstadials, represented mosaic habitats bringing
in closer proximity distinct microenvironments, whereas these tended to segregate spatially into separate zones during Post-Pleistocene times (Guthrie 2001).
The pattern shifted in tandem with bioclimatic fluctuations and correlated with
greater biotic diversity (Roebroeks et al. 1992). This influenced greatly ancient
foraging land use strategies. It favoured a wide-spectrum foraging strategy based
on “residential and logistic mobility” in close relation to the structure of resources
(Kelly 1983). Hominid hunters living in temperate and northern Eurasia began superimposing ecological specialization onto this basic adaptive substratum during
the “Intermediate” (see Rolland 1999) and Middle Palaeolithic, by focusing on the
exploitation of 2–3 medium and large ungulate species (Auguste 1996).
Palethnology. This concept comprises two distinct objectives. Firstly, it refers
to an excavation philosophy and method in research design (Leroi-Gourhan 1966)
that stressed the primacy of identifying, uncovering and recording ancient living
surfaces, structures and other activity relicts. Secondly, it refers to the exploiting of
the corpus of observations present in ethnological documents on recent and historical foraging populations, particularly the so-called “marginal societies” in parts of
North and South America, and Siberia. This valuable record remains without any
equally reliable alternative analogies (see discussion by Narr 1962). It describes in
detail the actual diversity and complexity of foraging lifestyles: constraints from
climatic circumstances, seasonal and yearly variations in climate and subsistence
Middle Palaeolithic milestones in Northern Eurasia
5
resources, human-animal-plant relationships, land use strategies, the role of social
systems, and cognitive behaviour. That information can be applied legitimately
to the modeling and constructing of a conceptual framework concerning ancient
hominid life, culture historical processes, and formative stages (drawing also from
Ethnological Theory, e.g. Sapir 1916). In the present case, this follows from identifying first the Middle Palaeolithic time-space distribution patterns.
Human Biogeography. The human biogeographic perspective introduces an
observation unit which geographic scale transcends the limits of regional studies.
It integrates in “stereoscopic vision” the natural habitats represented by the Pleistocene Mammoth-Steppe Biome (see below) spread throughout North Eurasia,
and its geographic overlap with the extensive distribution of Middle Palaeolithic
occurrences. They express together a vast cultural realm or oikumene (Nat 1972)
that involved land use dynamics and social networks interaction across boreal,
periglacial, continental latitudes and meridians.
THE MAMMOTH-STEPPE BIOME
An outstanding characteristic of the Palaeoarctic Trophic Zone of Eurasia
and Beringia since the Mid-Pleistocene was the formation, cyclical expansion and
contraction of the Mammoth-Steppe Biome (Guthrie 2001), or Mammuthus-Coelodonta faunal complex (Sher 1992; Kahlke 1999; Vereschagin and Baryschnikov
1991). This biogeographic phenomenon (see Fig. 1) emerged out of Central and
Northeast Asia, triggered by orogenesis in Central Asia that had far-reaching
repercussions on plant and animal communities until the end of the Pleistocene.
During glacial maximums, the biome extended across Eurasia and into Eastern
Beringia, from the Pyrenees foothills to the shores of the Mackenzie Basin in
northern Canada.
Accumulating evidence indicates that the biome was dominated by xeric
steppe grassland conditions (Guthrie 2001) underlying complex mosaics of highly
productive alpine, steppe, tundra and taiga habitats that had few Holocene actualist counterparts (Guthrie 1985; 2001; Kienast et al. 2005). Seasonal gradients
and contrasts were amplified, especially during stadials, with severe winters and
warm summers. The short warm seasons witnessed rapid, intense outbursts of
biotic activity. This rich Pleistocene primary production supported an equally
rich mammalian biodiversity. It included ungulates and carnivores like the woolly
mammoth, woolly rhinoceros, horse, reindeer, moose, giant deer, bison, musk ox,
saiga, cave lion, wolf, arctic fox, wolverine, lemmings, several of them widely
distributed (see Kahlke 1999).
These predominantly xeric circumstances opened up several large, high latitude ice-free areas and ecological corridors, e.g. in Fennoscandia (Kurtén 1988;
Ukkonen et al. 1999). A paramount example was the “Western Urals ecological
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Table 2. Numbered list of major Middle Palaeolithic sites (sites are numbered in brackets, and plotted on the Fig. 1 geographic distribution map)
Western Europe
(1) Mont-Dol; (2) Cotte St. Brelade L, 6.1, 3, B; (3) Crayford; (4) Lynford; (5) Beauvais-la-Justice; (6) Savy N2; (7) Mesvin IV; (8) Scladina 5; (9) Achenheim III “sol 74”
Central Europe
(10) Wannen; (11) Tönchesberg; (12) Schweinskopf; (13) Ariendorf; (14) Karstein; (15) Rheindahlen B3; (16) Salzgitter-Lebenstedt; (17) Lichtenberg; (18) Königsaue; (19) Markkleeberg
Eastern and Northeastern Europe
(20) Dzierżysław; (21) Raj; (22) Okiennik; (23) Wylotne; (24) Zwoleń; (25) Chulatovo; (26)
Rikhta; (27) Khotylevo; (28) Betovo; (29) Kvalynsk skullcap; (30) Dubovka; (31) Sukhaya
Mechetka (Volgograd); (32) El’niki II; (33) Garchi I; (34) Peshchernyi Log; (35) Bol’shaiia
Glukhaiia; (36) Ganichata; (37) Susiluola (“Wolf Cave”)
Siberia
(38) Bogdanovka; (39) Bol’shoi Kemchug; (40) Aryshevskoe; (41) Okladnikov; (42) Denisova;
(43) Ust’ Karakol; (44) Ust’ Kanskaiia; (45) Kara-Bom; (46) Kaminnaiia; (47) Tiumechin; (48)
Ust’ Izhul’; (49) Mokhovo II: (50) Gora Igetei; (51) Kurtak IV; (52) Dvuglazka 5, 6, 7; (53) Khotyk 4,5; (54) Diring Yuriakh; (55) Mungharyma; (56) Osinovka
corridor”, stretching repeatedly between meridians 40° and 60° E. It covered
about four million square kilometres during the Moscow Glacial (OIS 6) and five
million square kilometres during Valdai stadials (Nat 1971: 129). Similar patterns
were replicated in much of northern Siberia (Kienast et al. 2005). The moist glaciated area edges also created rich primary biotic margins attracting ungulates.
The vast Mammoth-Steppe Biome offered diverse natural habitats for eventual human exploitation. This remained contingent on Palaeolithic populations
acquiring and elaborating over time a necessary corpus of knowledge, experience,
land use and social strategies, technologies, familiarity with the behaviour, ecology, migratory patterns and demographic cycles of gregarious game species like
woolly mammoth, reindeer, bison or horse. Woolly mammoths supplied abundant proteins and dietary fat from shoulder areas, e.g. at La Cotte de St. Brelade,
Lynford, raw materials for artefacts and shelter structure elements (long bones,
vertebras, tusks, teeth, hides, furs). Hominids were familiar with mammoth longdistance migration trails and feeding grounds, searching for minerals in solonetz
landscapes (Derevianko et al. 2000: 52–53) and large limestone caves.
TIME PERSPECTIVISM
The time trajectory of human adaptation and culture history covers time span
units of different duration. They may range from short-term events or “stochastic oscillations”, equivalent to one or few generations leaving few discernable
archaeological traces, to long-term or longue durée patterns and trends that rep-
Middle Palaeolithic milestones in Northern Eurasia
7
resented “time-averaging amalgamations”. The latter correspond with protracted
developments spanning countless generations and approximating geological time
units, more readily visible in the archaeological record. Time perspectivism means
that “different time scales bring into focus different sorts of processes, requiring
different concepts and different sorts of explanatory variables” (Bailey 1987: 7).
It offers thus a suitable concept for discussing the long-term colonization trends
in North Eurasia.
THE GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION OF MIDDLE PALAEOLITHIC
OCCURRENCES ACROSS NORTHERN EURASIA
Figure 1 shows the distribution of Middle Palaeolithic occurrences across
Northern Eurasia near or higher than 50° N and up to 64° N, superimposed over the
realm covered by the Mammoth-Steppe Biome. Table 2 lists and identifies each of
these numbered occurrences. The time span covered by these Middle Palaeolithic
occurrences ranges from ca. 300 to 30 ka. It overlaps with series of Pleistocene bioclimatic fluctuations corresponding with later Mid- and earlier Late Pleistocene
times (Fig. 2). The “Appendix” (see p. 29) outlines basic information, with key references to emphasize overlooked sites, newly discovered or re-investigated ones,
and about which access to published information may prove problematic.
Although Middle Palaeolithic occurrences existing south of 50° N latitude
in Eurasia, e.g. in Southern Europe, the Near East and Central Asia remain more
Fig. 1. Middle Palaeolithic Sites in Northern Eurasia. Refer to Table 2 for site names
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Nicolas Rolland
Fig 2. Human occupations in the Palaeolithic – Correlation of latitudes with Pleistocene fluctuations (OIS) and
Palaeolithic time subdivisions
numerous, the configuration displayed on Fig. 1 demonstrates that Middle Palaeolithic populations began to settle higher latitudes and increasingly continental meridians since the late Mid-Pleistocene and early Late Pleistocene, under varying
bio-climatic phases (Fig. 2). Figure 1, nevertheless, calls for comments:
1. Many Middle Palaeolithic occurrences result from recent discoveries or
renewed investigations in Europe and Siberia. Most coincide with stadial circumstances and show greater time depth than previously thought;
2. This suggests that prospects of further discoveries look promising. Research in higher latitudes, nevertheless, faces logistical challenges: short summer
fieldwork seasons; huge distances (especially east of meridian 35° E); transportation problems due to the scarcity of roads or railways; accessing sites buried under
massive silt or loess overburdens; laborious excavations in permafrost or waterlogged deposits;
3. Most Palaeolithic occurrences from the “Western Urals ecological corridor” remain known only from surveys conducted during few excavations since
the 1930s; Upper Palaeolithic occurrences in that region outnumber Middle Palaeolithic ones. These became largely inaccessible because they have been waterlogged since the flooding caused by the Kama hydraulic reservoir;
Middle Palaeolithic milestones in Northern Eurasia
9
4. Field research in Siberia has a long and productive history, but was confined mainly to major inhabited areas in south-central Siberia (see Derevianko
1998, Fig. 204), along major north-flowing fluvial systems originating deep into
the northern slopes of Central Asian mountains (Sayans, Altai).
DISCUSSION
ADAPTIVE TIME SERIES
Figure 2 correlates latitudes with Pleistocene fluctuations, labelled “oxygen
isotopic stages” (OIS), and with Palaeolithic subdivisions, namely: (a) the Intermediate, bridging the Lower and Middle Palaeolithic, (b) the Middle and (c)
Upper Palaeolithic. They highlight a time series trajectory displaying a twofold
pattern: (1) a succession of south to north latitudes occupation cycles that tend to
co-vary with Pleistocene interglacial, stadial, and interstadial alternations; (2) an
underlying cumulative trend toward occupying progressively higher latitudes that
becomes more pronounced in the Middle Palaeolithic and culminates during the
Upper Palaeolithic.
LATITUDE GRADIENTS AND BIOCLIMATIC FLUCTUATIONS
In Europe, except for the probably discrete precocious occupation episode
of Kärlich H base during OIS 12 (50° N), the earliest recurrent examples of hominid occupation during stadials begin with the emergence of the first Middle
Palaeolithic occurrences during OIS 8 (297–250 ka) in West-Central or Central
Europe (Mesvin IV, Ariendorf I, Markkleeberg). During cold oscillations of the
OIS 7 interglacial, the Crayford brickearth contains evidence of human butchering
activities associated with a faunal complex comprising several Mammoth-Steppe
Biome species.
Occupation evidence above or near 50° N during the Saalian periglacial
(OIS 6) is shown by many new sites in Europe (Bosinski 1982; 1986; Callow
and Cornford 1986: 385; Foltyn et al. 2000; Thieme 2003; Turner 1990): Cotte
St. Brelade B, 3, 6; Maison-Alfort; Beauvais-La-Justice; Achenheim III “sol 74”;
the Schweinskopf, Tönchesberg, Wannen group; Rheindahlen B; Ochtmissen;
Dzierżysław. During the Eemian period (OIS 5e), Susiluola (“Wolf Cave”) testifies that human occupation reached far north, Western Ostrobothnia, Finland,
62.2° N (Mahaney et al. 2001; Schultz et al. 2002).
The Scladina Cave (layer 5) was occupied during the Saint-Germain 1B
cold oscillation, or OIS 5a–d (Otte et al. 1998). An Early Weichsel cold oscillation and cold steppe-tundra fauna is evidenced at Salzgitter-Lebenstedt. Cold
stadial occupation sites associated with the Mammoth-Steppe Biome fauna are
found in Northwest and Central Europe during various oscillations of the OIS 4
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stadial (Early Weichsel glacial): Lynford; Mont-Dol; Cotte St. Brelade 11; Savy;
Karstein; Lichtenberg; Zwoleń.
Middle Palaeolithic occurrences during stadials are also associated with the
Mammoth-Steppe Biome fauna below 50° N latitude, e.g. in Central Europe, Érd,
Tata, Kůlna, Nietoperzowa, Vergisson IV (95% of remains were identified as reindeer), eastern France, the Combe-Grenal late Riss and Early Wurm horizons, at
La Chaise (late Riss), Aquitaine Basin, with abundant reindeer, horse, bison and
saiga, during maximum Mammoth-Steppe Biome expansions.
CONTINENTALITY AND HYPERCONTINENTALITY
The progressive conquest of Northern Eurasia included the eastern Russian
Plain, the Western Urals, and Siberia. Humans occupied increasingly continental
and hyper-continental longitudes and habitats that mark the transition from the
West-European paraperiglacial cold-temperate zone to the East-European paraperiglacial polar-temperate zone (see Velichko 1988, Fig. 8), shown by Khotylevo, Betovo, Rikhta, Dubovka, Sukhaiia Mechetka during the OIS 5a–d cold
oscillations and/or the Early Valdai, near or above 50° N. The age of the Kvalynsk
skullcap (Gremiiatskii 1952) at 53° N, in the Volga remains unknown, but its
archaic morphology implies an early date (OIS 7 or OIS 5e). Middle Palaeolithic finds in the Western Urals probably correspond with the Livkhin interglacial
(OIS 7) at Elniki II, and early OIS 3 at Garchi I, Bol’shoi Glukhoi, Peshchernyi
Log (Guslitzer and Pavlov 1987; 1993; Pavlov et al. 2004; Talitskii 1946) under
continental mesic conditions at 58–59° N latitudes.
Settling the Siberian continental longitudes required coping with cold dry winter extremes, even in mid-latitudes. Present-day winter temperatures may drop to
–33°C or lower in parts of the Altai, –26°C in mesic Baikalia, –56°C in the upper
Yenisei area of south-central Siberia, and under –60°C in Yakutia. Winter conditions become especially severe in open northern steppes. Notwithstanding these
circumstances, evidence from Siberia, where ice-free corridors were common, confirms a human occupation of continental and hypercontinental habitats associated
with the Mammoth-Steppe Biome faunal suite above 50° N: Bogdanovka, at the
Eastern Ural edge (Shirokov 1992); Ust’ Izhul’, Yenisei Basin, during the Kazantsevo interglacial (Chlachula et al. 2003; Drozdov et al. 1999); Siberian Altai caves
and open-air sites, e.g. Denisova, Ust’Kanskaiia, Kaminnaiia, Ust’ Karakol, during
the Kazantsevo interglacial, Zyriian (OIS 4) stadial and Karginsk interstadial (Derevianko 1998; Derevianko et al. 2003). The Okladnikov Cave was occupied during
The Karginsk (Derevianko and Markin 1992). Kurtak 11, Yenisei, may represent
a Zyrian stadial disturbed occurrence (Drozdov et al. 1999). The northernmost
Middle Palaeolithic site is Mungharyma, Yakutia (Sakha), 64° N, perhaps early
OIS 3 (Mochanov and Fedoseeva 2001; 2003), though under hypercontinental xeric
cold conditions. Dating the earliest Diring Yuriakh quarry site horizon, Yakutia, 61° N,
remains inconclusive (Derevianko 1998; Kuzmin 2000). It may represent a discrete
northern penetration during a late Mid-Pleistocene interglacial.
Middle Palaeolithic milestones in Northern Eurasia
11
DISPERSAL MILESTONES
The cyclical, though progressive hominid occupation of Northern Eurasia
likely involved south-north, rather than west-east, movements, since Central Asia,
Mongolia, North China, besides Europe and the Near East, were also settled
during the Lower Palaeolithic. Northward population movements beyond 40° N
latitudes formed fluctuating dispersal frontlines undulating along latitudes and
meridian axes. Although initially in tandem with Pleistocene temperate phases,
they established afterwards a progressive succession of adaptive and habitats occupation milestones even during boreal, periglacial and xeric continental phases.
Throughout North Eurasia, we witness a close association with the MammothSteppe Biome faunal suite that supplied animal food staples, woolly mammoth
particularly, from Lynford or Cotte St. Brelade to Ust’Izhul’ or Mungharyma.
Examples of land use milestones in Europe come from (1) the English Channel
during stadial phases, and (2) Western Ostrobothnia, Finland, during the Eemian
interglacial. During the glacial, eustatic sea level stood low, the Channel became
a land bridge incised by palaeo-rivers (Tuffreau and Marcy 1998: 4, cover picture
and Fig. 1) and was covered by steppe-tundra. During severe winters (–40°C in
January), it became hunting ground, in place of the present-day fishing grounds.
The cliffs bordering the Channel contain Middle Palaeolithic sites clustered along
the Normandy and Brittany coastlines, and Jersey Island (Callow and Cornford
1986; Monnier 1980, Figs. 230, 235) suggesting preferred locations to monitor
herd movements along the Channel steppe-tundra. The intriguing Eemian (OIS
5e) occurrence of Susiluola (“Wolf Cave”), western Finland, represents a different milestone situation (Schultz et al. 2002). The geology, palaeoclimatology
and palinology indicate a comparatively brief boreal “window of opportunity”
occupation episode during the Eemian interglacial – though with the persistence
of mammoth and reindeer Mammoth-Steppe Biome elements in ice-free areas
of Fennoscandia (Hütt et al. 1993; Kurtén 1988; Mahaney et al. 2001; Ukkonen
et al. 1999).
HOMINID BEHAVIOURAL ECOLOGY AND BIOGEOGRAPHY
Modeling the adaptive processes and land use, revealed by the overlap of the
Mammoth-Steppe Biome and Middle Palaeolithic occurrences throughout northern Eurasia, must consider interacting factors. Firstly, human groups colonizing
boreal, high latitude, periglacial and continental environments had to come to
terms with challenging perennial and/or cyclical bio-climatic stresses and imperatives, to insure survival. Secondly, while Quaternary research shows that
such Pleistocene habitats were not “desolate landscapes”, exploiting their latent
subsistence potential made it incumbent to develop a core of essential, targeted
strategies in technology, socio-ecology, organization and cognition, if adjustment
to these circumstances was to be feasible. The ethnographic record on various life
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Nicolas Rolland
style aspects of foraging societies in boreal/subarctic regions of North America
and Siberia provides valuable descriptive information about basic requirements
and constraints to insure year-round survival, albeit taking into consideration that
Middle Palaeolithic cultural repertoires remained at a simpler and more rudimentary level.
MATERIAL CULTURE REPERTOIRES
These included categories of portable artefacts and artificial structure technologies already developed in other areas or since the Lower and Intermediate
Palaeolithic:
Lithic technology (see Rolland 1999, Table 1), as well as bone, antler and
wood artefacts for procurement and maintenance;
Fire making, essential to avoid hypothermia, provide heating, light during
dark hours, food cooking, keep carnivores at bay, and for bush burning. It was
already necessary (despite a lack of preserved evidence) during the Lower Palaeolithic settling of Northern Europe, e.g. Pakefield, Boxgrove, Abbeville, Misenheim. Its uses broadened during the Middle Palaeolithic;
Artificial dwelling structures like screens, tents, dugouts and huts (Rolland
1999, Table 3B; see also the discovery of a camp with huts at Inden-Altdorf,
Rhineland, dateable to the Eemian period, “Steinzeit-Werkzeuge im Tagebau”,
Kölner Stadt Anzeiger 05.02.07), apart from using available caves or rockshelters. Inorganic (rocks, slabs, clay, sand, gravel) and organic (moss, lichen,
grass, leaves, bark, vines, furs, hides, sinews, large bones, tusks, antlers, animal
grease) raw materials could serve for making protective structures against winter cold and wind, as well as clothing, though, again, preserved traces remain
scarce.
Animal food procurement techniques involved simple and more elaborate
techniques (Anell 1969) such as fire, weapons, corralling, driving, trapping, pursuing by stealth, according to game animal behavioural ecology, feeding habits,
and size. During winters, game herd species like bison or mammoth aggregated in
sheltered river valleys, where they could have been hunted more readily. This is
documented by ethnographic findings and/or indicated by the location of Middle
Palaeolithic sites.
SOCIAL ECOLOGY, LAND USE REPERTOIRES AND SOCIAL SYSTEMS
Subsistence conditions in boreal, periglacial, continental and hypercontinental circumstances were governed by several requirements: a dependence on
animal food resources for the most of the year; increasingly specialized exploitation of gregarious ungulates – their availability was controlled by seasonal
variations, mobility patterns and migrations, demographic cycles and the fact
Middle Palaeolithic milestones in Northern Eurasia
13
that these species were scattered across boreal, subarctic, steppe, tundra and
alpine habitats; human mobility (Kelly 1983) across vast distances, which was
necessary for “mapping in”, procurement of dispersed food resources and acquisition of raw materials; adjustment by closely attuned time-space scheduling
“calendars” to sharp variations in climate, resources, seasonality, yearly cycles,
and landscape impediments (ice fields, bogs, marshes, muskegs, lakes, hills and
mountain ranges).
Extensive home ranges expressed a complex relationship between space,
distance and mobility within them. The social systems most compatible with such
constraints would favour low density, dispersed local groups with a fluid composition of nuclear families, individuals’ residences’ “flux”, and fission. These open,
“anucleated” social units (Yellen and Harpending 1972) would be linked through
“mating networks” (Wobst 1976). Wide kin networks insured local group biological continuity by maintaining minimum demographic thresholds and mitigate
stochastic variations in population size.
COGNITIVE AND INFORMATION STRATEGIES
Besides basic technological, socio-ecological, social and organizational
methods to meet survival demands throughout the vast cold spaces of North
Eurasia, sparse mobile foraging populations had to depend on long-distance information sharing networks, directly by contacts and indirectly through diffusion continua. This critical cultural strategy entailed three conditions: acquiring
and pooling over generations knowledge about landscape, habitats, bioclimatic
change, localized and seasonal variations in plant and animal food resources, behaviour, migrations and fluctuation cycles; sharing available information reliably
between small, dispersed local populations; devising social and symbolic methods
to transmit this information.
The “first immigrants” moving into new ecosystems by home range displacements, salients and shifting frontlines along latitudes and meridians, had to probe
unfamiliar ecosystems by trial-and-error feedback loops. Information repertoires
were acquired slowly and accumulated over many generations. The mobility and
“interaction spheres” necessary for surviving in boreal, periglacial and continental
settings fostered these socially flexible anucleated kinship systems and mating
networks insuring local groups’ demographic maintenance. It served the additional purpose of circulating and exchanging pooled information and new techniques.
Oral traditions provided a sine qua non means developed across generations for
passing on vital information by new signals and symbolized communication
(Clermont 1974; Cooper 1946; Minc 1986).
The widespread distribution of Middle Palaeolithic sites shown on Fig. 1
testifies that archaic modern populations already mastered the essential lifestyle
strategies and cultural means that made possible a viable colonization of these
14
Nicolas Rolland
landscapes and habitats of North Eurasia. This distribution pattern across the
North Eurasian geographic magnitude evokes the picture of a “Christmas tree”
shining in the dark. Its “lights flashing in and out” reflect the “wiring” connecting these archaeological signatures of past interaction networks, of home range
displacements, dispersal frontlines oscillations, left by successive generations of
loosely linked local groups’ fission.
THE MIDDLE PALAEOLITHIC AS A FORMATIVE STAGE
The Pleistocene peopling of the North took place as a longue durée time
series, beginning with the Middle Palaeolithic as a formative stage. Hominid ecological plasticity and a series of “apprenticeship” strategies and thresholds, largely
dependent on culture means, made that possible (Bosinski 1982; Kummer 1971;
Nat 1971; Rolland 1999). Some of these means were elaborated during the Lower
Palaeolithic, prior to dispersals further north and major land use adjustments. An
omnivorous dietary repertoires broadened and became more specialized by Middle Palaeolithic times, with a focus on animal food. Penetrating northern Eurasian
latitudes and habitats reached an apogee in the Upper Palaeolithic (Fig. 2). Settlements up to and above the Arctic Circle, under varying climatic conditions,
are exemplified by a string of occurrences during the OIS 3 Main Interstadial and
OIS 2 Main Stadial, from Northeast Europe to Eastern Beringia, beginning between 50 and 30 ka. Outstanding new discoveries include: Mamontovaiia Kuriia,
65° N (Northeast European Urals), 36 ka; Yana RHS, 71° N (Yakutia), 27 ka;
Bluefish Cave, 67° N (Yukon), 24 ka.
The Upper Palaeolithic in North Eurasia represents the “classic” development stage, rooted in Middle Palaeolithic antecedents. The “transitional”
character of the most of Early Upper Palaeolithic assemblage types in Western
Eurasia, up to Trans-Baikalia, suggests self-contained multilinear homotaxial
process incorporating new, more elaborate and more organized cultural elements fostered by extensive interaction spheres and diffusion continua. The
record does not support the scenario of a sudden, total and qualitatively distinct
replacement event the origin of which was external and monocentric, e.g. Near
East or Sub-Saharan Africa (?), triggered by biological or neural-anatomical
“prime movers”.
CONCLUSION
The survey, concerned with Middle Palaeolithic occurrences over North Eurasia, reveals a significant linkage between their distribution and the Pleistocene
Mammoth-Steppe Biome. This connection (see Bosinski 1963) is buttressed by
Middle Palaeolithic milestones in Northern Eurasia
15
mounting evidence. A viable stadial occupation above 50° N is established, for
instance, by small, discrete occurrences in the Neuwied Basin (Bosinski 1986).
The patterns shown by the survey owe much to improved analytical power in
archaeology, and rich information contents from Quaternary research. The conclusions, interpretative hypotheses and the culture historical framework rest on
two major observation sources: (1) the Middle Palaeolithic record distributed
over latitudinal, longitudinal, time-climatic and biotic settings, providing the direct empirical basis; (2) ethnographic evidence from historical foraging societies about techno-ecological adjustments making survival in boreal and subarctic
areas feasible, which remains the most appropriate, straightforward and productive source of controlled comparisons for interpreting Palaeolithic adaptations in
North Eurasia.
MAJOR MIDDLE PALAEOLITHIC OCCURRENCES IN EURASIA:
AN OUTLINE OF DIAGNOSTIC CONTENTS
APPENDIX
Bracketed site numbers (Ochtmissen excepted) are to be found also on Fig. 1.
Some sites information remains rudimentary, but with essential aspects (habitat, time-climatic phase and age, latitude, continental setting, flora and fauna).
Latitude coordinates may be approximately accurate or precise, depending on
information. Key references are given for each site. Symbol “*” indicates caves
or rock shelters.
ACHENHEIM III “SOL 74” [9] (Heim et al. 1982; Sainty and Thévenin
1978). This major Pleistocene location, west of Strasbourg, 48.3° N contains
a series of Mid- and Late Pleistocene cycles of sand, loess, loessic loam deposits and mammal fauna spanning five climatic cycles over 350 000 years. The in
situ “Sol 74” Middle Palaeolithic archaeological floor belongs to the Achenheim
horizon IVb, “Upper Older Loess” series, middle terrace IV. Thought to be the
Early Weichsel (OIS 4), it actually dates to the Late Saalian (OIS 6) periglacial,
following revisions (Heim et al. 1982), correlated perhaps with Ariendorf and
Rheindahlen B3 in the Rhineland (Bosinski 1986: 27). It comprises concentration
areas of bones and artefacts. The centre depression holds the remains of processed
carcasses of rhino, horse and bison associated with only few implements (chopping tools). In the south rectangular area, flake tools (racloirs, chopping tools,
flakes) are more numerous, associated with fragmented bones of the same species,
mammoths and Megaceros. The occurrence is interpreted as an animal butchering
and processing site, rather than a killing or home base.
16
Nicolas Rolland
ARIENDORF [13], SCHWEINSKOPF [12], TÖNCHESBERG [11], WANNEN [10] (Bosinski 1983; 1986; Bosinski et al. 1986; Turner 1990). The Neuwied
Basin, Central Rhineland, is formed by the river’s flow through slates of the
Rhenish Shield, at ca. 51° N (Turner 1986, Fig. 2). The eastern Eifel, west bank
area, contains a concentration of extinct volcanoes. During the Pleistocene, the region experienced sharp temperate and periglacial alternations, evidenced by loess,
ice wedges, cryoturbation, solifluxion, soil formations, and repeated volcanic
eruptions leaving basalt and ash deposits as markers. These events left a rich timeclimatic and palaeoenvironmental record, with organic materials preservation and
a geochronological framework, including tephra horizons, radiometric dating by
argon, K/Ar, TL and 14C. In addition, the region contains discrete, brief Lower
and Middle Palaeolithic occupation episodes with mammal remains (Bosinski
et al. 1986, Fig. 4; Turner 1990, Fig. 3). These occurrences comprise only small
artefact collections, making detailed techno-typological sequences problematic,
but significant for hominid ecology by showing biotopes exploitation under contrasting circumstances, including periglacials, as well as palethnological documents from in situ occupation floor patterns (Bosinski 1983, Figs 9, 17, 22;
Bosinski et al. 1986, Figs 11, 16). The occurrences below are Saalian loess stadials (OIS 6, OIS 8).
Ariendorf, located further north on the Rhine, contains three Middle Palaeolithic and fossil mammal units: Ariendorf Channel, Ariendorf 1 and 2. The first
two belong to early Saalian cold stage (OIS 8), and Ariendorf 2 to the late Saalian
(OIS 6). Trogontherii mammoth, horse, woolly rhino, giant elk, reindeer, red deer
and a large bovine are found in the early Saalian units. A transitional trogontheriiprimigenius mammoth, horse, red deer and bison are associated with Ariendorf 2.
The following occurrences come from volcanic crater deposits. Tönchesberg 1
dates to late Saalian loess, with horse, mammoth, red deer (mostly shed antlers),
reindeer and large bovine. Schweinskopf 1, 2, 3 belong to late Saalian loess cold
stage (OIS 6), with an uranium date of 165 ka for unit 2, with mammoth, rhino,
horse, reindeer, giant elk and bovine. Wannen 1, 2, 3 belong to the late Saalian,
with rhino, horse, red deer and some carnivores. Most mammal bones (carnivores excluded) are broken and anthropogenic. The industries, in quartz, quartzite
or flint, contain small quantities of flakes (including some Levallois), racloirs
(Bosinski et al. 1986, Figs 19–20, 25–27). The sites represent special activity
occurrences. The Neuwied Basin provided attractive habitats (perhaps due to
a primary production enhanced by volcanic soil trace elements) for the ungulate
species exploited by humans.
ARYSHEVSKOE 1 [40] (Zenin 2002; Zenin et al. 2000; Vasil’ev et al.
2002). This factory site, 56.8° N, near the Chulym River, Ob’-Yenisei interfluve,
is known from brief reports. The artefacts show various core reduction methods (radial, convergent, parallel, orthogonal). Tools include racloirs, denticulates,
notches. The occurrence, dated to >40 ka, may be actually older.
Middle Palaeolithic milestones in Northern Eurasia
17
BEAUVAIS-LA-JUSTICE [5] (Locht et al. 1995). This occurrence overlooks the Thérain Valley, Beauvais Commune, Paris Basin, ca. 49.5° N. The
sequence comprises six layers. Two Middle Palaeolithic archaeological layers, 6a
and 6b, come from yellow-brown sandy matrices. Dating the site and age of human occupation to the Late Saalian (OIS 6) remains likely: (a) by attributing to the
Eemian/Earliest Weichsel the layers 3 and 4 pedocomplex developed on underlying sediments that show eolisation and frost traces; (b) whereas Early Weichsel
loess deposits are thin, scarce or absent in the region, the Eemian palaeosols often
represent the surface; (c) U-Th dates of reindeer samples indicate 160–210 ka.
ESR dating is also planned. The abundant, well-preserved mammal suite illustrates a typical Mammoth-Steppe Biome association, dominated by reindeer, followed by horse, rhino, mammoth and bison. This, and continental steppe rodents,
point to a cold periglacial open, arid steppe landscape. The two abundant assemblages contain 11 700 flint artefacts (lower layer 6b) and ca. 2000 pieces (upper
layer 6b). Lithic reduction includes prepared-core flaking sensu lato dominated
by disc-cores. Pseudo-Levallois points, retouched flakes, many racloirs, notches,
denticulates, backed knives constitute the typological composition. Beauvais-LaJustice site represents a human occupation during severe periglacial Late Saalian
conditions, near 50° N.
BETOVO [28] (Tarasov 1977; Velichko 1988). This site, upper Desna,
ca. 53° N, has a Middle Palaeolithic horizon in the lower levels of a deposits series. That horizon was re-deposited by solifluxion down a valley slope, during the
Smolensk cryophase of the Early Valdai glacial, correlated with OIS 4, ca. 70 ka
(Velichko 1988, Fig. 6). The flora and fauna, comprising woolly mammoth and
rhino, reindeer, red deer, bison, saiga, marmot, lemming (Tarasov 1977, Table 1)
indicate an open tundra-steppe habitat with scarce trees and shrubs and cold stadial conditions in the eastern Russian Plain paraperiglacial zone. The flint industry
is a non-Levallois facies with prepared core (disc core, single surface cores) and
implements dominated by denticulates, notches (Tarasov 1977: 27, Figs 3, 4).
BOGDANOVKA [38] (Shirokov 1992). The site, located near the village
of the same name, Cheliabinsk region, left bank of the river Ural, ca. 150 miles
south of Magnitogorsk, 53° N, comes from a salvage operation (Shirokov 1992).
The information is preliminary. The finds consist in stone artefacts and mammal bones in loessic alluvium at the base of a seven layers sequence (1992, Fig.
1A). The Pleistocene fauna is the Mammoth-Steppe Biome with mammoth, rhino,
horse, bison, red deer, reindeer, saiga, cave bear, in a highly fragmentary state.
Dating is outstanding. The rich Middle Palaeolithic assemblage (789 pieces) is
made of various raw materials (radiolarite, indurated shale and red jasper).
*COTTE ST. BRELADE B, 3, 6 [2] (Callow and Cornford 1986; Scott 1980).
The site, in a granite inselberg or “head”, in southwest Jersey Island, English
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Nicolas Rolland
Channel, >49° N, was described in detail. The Middle and Late Pleistocene deposit sequence of 40 m and 23 units, made of beach and grus materials, alternating
aeolian sand and loess and reworked loess series, has a unique, complex geomorphology and geochemical formation history, due to its changing geography, evidenced by lithology, palynology, faunal studies and special analyses. During most
of the sequence, it remained a peninsula attached to the Cotentin in Normandy,
though distance between the site and the beach varied according to sea level
changes. It became an island only during the Eemian interglacial. Pollen analysis
shows alternating phases of temperate woodland, cool mixed woodland and grasslands, and cold dry steppe tundra open landscapes with arctic plants and scarce
trees (birch, conifers), when winter maximum could drop to –40°C. The Saalian
Complex sequence shows alternating periglacial, boreal and temperate phases.
During Stage II (layers H to C), temperate and boreal phases predominated (Callow and Cornford 1986, Fig. 7.2). Mosaic vegetation landscapes comprised variable frequencies of birch, elm, oak, pine, juniper, though herbaceous pollens tend
to predominate. During Stage III (layers B to 6.1), periglacial conditions (including three severe oscillations and winter maximum dropping) dominated, with
loess and reworked loess sediments. Pollens are scarce, but indicate a prevalence
of steppe-tundra landscapes with arctic plants. The mammalian fauna comprised
typically: woolly mammoth and rhinos, reindeer, red deer, horse, bison, bear, wolf
and arctic fox. The Weichsel Stages IV and V show alternating steppe and boreal
phases with beach, aeolian sands and loess sediments.
The Saalian and Weichselian sequences contain abundant stone artefacts
(over 100 000 pieces), charcoal and ashes, bone fragments. Regular human occupation begins with layer H. A TL dating gives 238 ka for layer C/D during
Stage II. Flint remained by far the dominant lithic material, procured from beach
pebbles, exploited with profligacy (Stage II) or parsimony (Stage III), depending
on the access distance to beach pebbles related to sea level fluctuations. During
Stage II, assemblages contain mostly notches, serrated tools and raw flakes, and
during Stage III, various racloirs and retouched points become frequent. La Cotte
St. Brelade remains a remarkable site due to the fact that: (a) alternating cycles
of temperate, boreal and periglacial phases and techno-typological variations in
lithic assemblages indicate that hominids occupied the region by different cycles
of subsistence and land use strategies, exploiting by broad-spectrum foraging the
available resources of trophic pyramid; (b) ecological polymorphism combined
with cultural means enabled surviving during severe Saalian Complex stadials.
Layers 3 and 6 represent brief occupation events involving the stampeding off the
granite inselberg, and processing of adult woolly mammoth and rhinos (the skulls,
shoulder blade and vertebrae of nine mammoths and two rhinos in layer 3; eleven
mammoths and three rhinos in layer 6).
*DVUGLAZKA 5, 6 [52] (Abramova 1981; 1985; Derevianko 1998; Goebel
1993; Vasil’ev et al. 2002). This cave occurrence, 45 km north of Abakan, Khakas
Middle Palaeolithic milestones in Northern Eurasia
19
Autonomous Region, 54.1° N, is situated on the Tolcheiia affluent of the Yenisei
(Minusinsk Basin), north of the Sayan range and west of the Kuznetsk-Alatau
range. The palaeoenvironment indicated by mammal association during the Middle Palaeolithic occupation points to an interstadial warm dry steppe environment
(Abramova 1981: 76). The Middle Palaeolithic horizons date to the later Karginsk
interstadial, with 14C dates of 27 ka (layer 7) and 26.6 ka (layer 4). The seven
archaeological strata contain Middle Palaeolithic “Component III” (layers 4, 5,
6, 7), and Upper Palaeolithic series. The Middle Palaeolithic shows characteristic
Levallois facies traits, Levallois and disc cores, Levallois points, flakes (Abramova 1981, Fig. 1), racloirs, denticulates and flakes.
DZIERZYSŁAW I [20] (Foltyn et al. 2000). The site, known by a brief
report, is located ca. 50° N in Upper Silesia, NW of the Moravian Gate, near the
Psina River, an affluent of the Odra (Oder). The small artefact collection comes
from Pleistocene deposits on the Czarna Gora plateau, found in layer 6 at the bottom of the sequence (2000, Fig. 2) in fine laminated sandy loess matrix, TL dated
to 180 ka. The loess is partly truncated by erosion and topped by a sedimentary
hiatus, and identified as the “Upper Older Loess” Warthe stadial horizon (OIS 6)
of the Saalian Complex. The Dzierzysław I is significant for its artefact contents,
and early human occupation during stadial conditions. The implements represent
the earliest known asymmetrical bifaces, a Blattschaber and plano-convex artefact
fragments with a diagnostic Prądnikian lateral tranchet (2000, Fig. 3).
EL’NIKI II, GARCHI I, *BOL’SHOI GLUKHOI [32,33,35] (Guslitzer and
Pavlov 1987; 1993; Pavlov et al. 2004). El’niki II, 58° N at the junction of the
Sylva and Kama rivers near Perm, Northwest Urals, lies at the bottom of thick
loess series, waterlogged most of the year. Anthropic material consists of an in
situ chopping tool associated with M. trogontheri bones, and an adjacent flake,
pointing to a late Mid-Pleistocene possible datum for hominid presence; Garchi
I, 59° N, known for an Early Upper Palaeolithic industry, has a Middle Palaeolithic horizon of stratified but undiagnostic flakes, and derived characteristic Middle Palaeolithic implements nearby; Bol’shoi Glukhoi, a rockshelter ca. 58° N,
in the foothills of the Chusovaya river, has abundant mammal bones (reindeer,
giant elk, brown bear, cave hyena, wolverine, cave lion, wolf, arctic fox and small
mammals) diagnostic of steppe, forest and tundra mosaics. Many split long bones
suggest human action. The site contains quartzite choppers and flakes. Dating is
inconclusive: some fauna point to the late Mid-Pleistocene, though the deposits
may span into the earlier Late Pleistocene. Human occupation consisted probably
of brief visits.
KHOTYK [53] (Lbova 2000; Lbova et al. 2003; Vasil’ev et al. 2002). This
new site, the Ona region of Trans-Baikalia, NE of Uland-Ude, 52.3° N, Buryat
Autonomous Republic, Siberia, has a Middle (layers 4–6) and Upper Palaeolithic
(layers 3–1) sequence. Trans-Baikalia is marked by topographic, altitude and mi-
20
Nicolas Rolland
croenvironment contrasts, an extreme continental climate and sharp seasonal variations, on the border between East Siberian mountain taiga and Central Asian
steppe ecosystems. The palaeoenvironment reconstructed from pollens, spores and
palaeopedology for Khotyk during early Zyriansk stadial (OIS 4) indicates that
the region, though periglacial, was dominated by open arid steppe habitats (Graminae, Ericacae, Artemisia, scarce trees, e.g. pine) and severe climate with permafrost. Mammals include woolly rhino, Siberian gazelle, horse, bovine, marmot and
rodents. The in situ Middle Palaeolithic horizons span the Kazantsevo interglacial
(OIS 5e) and early Zyriansk, with RTL dates (Lbova 2002, Table 1). The industry
shows Levallois flake-blades, racloirs, “citrus” pebble reduction, single surface
cores, and many pebble tools (2003, Figs 39, 40, 42). Layer 5 is an occupation
surface with scattered bones, cores, choppers, racloirs (Lbova et al. 2003, Fig. 41).
KHOTYLEVO I [27] (Velichko 1988; Velichko et al. 1981). This Middle
Palaeolithic site is located 18 km NW of Briansk, on the first Desna terrace,
upper Dnieper Basin, in the east Russian Plain, 53.5° N. The archaeological occurrence comes from re-deposited alluvium covered by loess. The pollens associated with the alluvium indicate a cool tundra-forest habitat. Mammals include
mammoth, woolly rhino, bison, a large horse, reindeer, red deer, brown bear and
wolf. The climate-stratigraphic setting corresponds with onset of the Smolensk
cryogenic horizon A cold oscillation, correlated with OIS 5b (1988, Fig. 6), ca.
90 ka. The industry is abundant (18 000 artefacts, including 1600 cores), made of
dark-greenish flint. The assemblage is varied, with bifacial implements, including
a leafpoint-like pieces, points and racloirs (1981, Fig. 16). The site illustrates,
along others like Betovo, Chulatovo, Rikhta, Dubovka, a hominid occupation of
higher latitude and continental habitats, namely the “east European paraperiglacial, temperate-polar zone”, during cold oscillations or stadials.
LICHTENBERG [17] (Veil et al. 1995). This site, Lüchow-Dannenberg district, Lower Saxony, is near a fossil glacial lakeshore, south of the Elbe, >53° N.
It illustrates conclusively human occupation in a biotically rich periglacial setting.
The southernmost advance of Weichsel ice sheets, lying 75 km north, never reached
the Lichtenberg valley. The stratification gives a clear picture (1995, Fig. 4) of the
chrono-climatic position of the site above a series of early Weichsel fluctuations
(Brørup, Odderade) and Saalian glacial deposits. The lithology (sandy and muddy
sediments, ice wedges, solifluction traces), pollen (non-arboreal), mammals
(mammoth, horse, reindeer) evidence and average TL dates of 57 ka, indicate that
occupation took place during an early Weichsel stadial, or lower pleniglacial correlated with OIS 4. The Middle Palaeolithic flint industry comprises 76 artefacts
consisting of tools or implements brought into the site (only one core). Bifacial
implements dominate the assemblage (Keilmesser, bifacial racloirs, flat racloirs,
flat and cordiform or triangular handaxes – Figs 19–26). Unifacial implements
include racloirs, retouched or utilized flakes and one denticulate (1995, Table 4).
The industry belongs clearly to the “Keilmessergruppen” of Central Europe.
Middle Palaeolithic milestones in Northern Eurasia
21
LYNFORD [4] (Boismier et al. 2003). The site, NE of Mumford village,
Norfolk, 52.5° N, found in a quarry and saved by salvage excavation, contains
rich palaeobiological evidence (plants, pollens, insects, molluscs, mammals). The
archaeological material comes from one of lower deposits horizons in a brown/
dark brown matrix with silt and fine sand filling a palaeochannel, up to 0.70 m
thick. Deposition took place under still water or low-energy moving water. The
palaeovegetation indicates a biotically rich open grassland landscape with patches
of birch, scrub, heath, bog and some pine and spruce further away. The mammals
comprise 2079 remains, including fragments of nine woolly mammoth individuals, woolly rhinos, reindeer, horse, bison, wolf, arctic fox, brown bear, a Pine Hole
Zone faunal suite. The pollens, mammals and beetles indicate a cold stadial setting, with July mean temperature of 13°C or less, and winter below –10°C. This,
and OSL dates of 64 000 and 67 BP, fit with the early Devensian glacial, correlated with OIS 4. The Middle Palaeolithic industry (487 pieces) is Mousterian of
Acheulean tradition with 66 pointed, cordiform, bout coupé, ovate and unifacial
handaxes, some racloirs, notches, denticulates and a few cores. Lynford represents
a little disturbed butchering occurrence, shown by broken and tools carried into
the site, a palimpsest of recurrent occupations with tools carried into the site.
MARKKLEEBERG [19] (Baumann and Mania 1983). This locality, ca. 51.5° N,
studied for over a century, represents one of the richest Palaeolithic sites in Central Europe. It is situated 8 km south of Leipzig, Saxony, in laminated gravels of the Pleisse river “Hauptterrasse”, formed by proglacial lakes during the
Mid-Pleistocene ice ages. Its probably biotically rich periglacial habitat with
steppe-tundra vegetation attracted ungulates (trogontherii and primigenius woolly
mammoth and rhinos, horse) and hominids, shown by numerous Palaeolithic sites
in the region. Lithostratigraphy and other evidence established conclusively an
early Saalian Complex stadial age (OIS 8). The site, extremely rich in flint artefacts (several thousand pieces), illustrates an early Middle Palaeolithic occurrences, with Levallois flaking and handaxes. It functioned as a raw material quarry,
but it cannot be concluded whether the associated fauna represents evidence of
hominid exploitation or remains of animals living in the region at that time. The
main interest is that it documents an early (OIS 8 or ca. 300 ka) human presence
in a periglacial context.
MESVIN IV [7] 56° N (Cahen and Michel 1986; Van Neer 1986). Situated in
the Mons area, Wampe valley, 56° N, Belgium, the site is in compacted cailloutis
sediments comprising flint nodules, sand lenses from two broad level channels
incising Palaeocene sands (Cahen and Michel 1986, Fig. 2). The mint state of
artefact, while associated Mid-Pleistocene mammal bones show limited disturbance and transport – many refitted pieces (Fig. 3) – suggests an occurrence on
the channel shore, or inside its dried bed. The mammals indicate a dry, cold open
steppe landscape with tree patches. Uranium dating of mammoth bones gave an
average 263.5 ka, or a 250–300 ka span. Comparison of different mammal spe-
22
Nicolas Rolland
cies, dominated by woolly mammoth, rhino and the large Equus remagensis, some
reindeer and giant elk, bison, cave lion (Van Neer 1986, Table 1) with other sites
(Achenheim, Tourville) and radiometric readings indicate a periglacial environment dateable to the early Saalian stadial, correlated with OIS 8. The industry
comprises nearly 8000 artefacts, including 274 tools. Levallois flaking is represented by refitted cores, points, flakes and a suite of racloirs, Mousterian points,
natural backed knives, notches and denticulates (Cahen and Michel 1986: Table 1,
Figs 4, 5), bifacial implements, and Prądnik-like pieces. A key significance of
Mesvin IV is that it is an early Middle Palaeolithic hominid occupation in a high
latitude periglacial steppe habitat.
MUNGHARYMA [55] (Mochanov and Fedoseeva 2001; 2002). This new
site near the Viliuy and Lena rivers confluence, in Sakha (Yakutia), 64° N is
known only by limited information. The deposits (2001, Fig. 4) contain a typical
Mammoth-Steppe fauna of mammoth, woolly rhino and other elements. Dating
by OSL ranged 150–38 ka above the deposits, though the Late Pleistocene (OIS 4
or early OIS 3) seems plausible. The diagnostic Middle Palaeolithic kyzylsyrskoi
industry is dominated by bifacial flake implements: points, convex racloirs, planoconvex implements, bifaces, Prądnik knives (2002, Figs 15–19), reminiscent of
the Sukhaya Mechetka Valley, Volga region, European Russia.
OCHTMISSEN (Thieme 2003). This new occurrence, Lüneburg Borough,
Lower Saxony, >53.5° N is situated near the Ilmenau River, an affluent of the Elbe
6 km away, and 70 km northwest of the Lichtenberg site. Its stratigraphic position
(2003, Fig. 3 profile), chrono-climatic lithological features, and Middle Palaeolithic assemblage contents concur in giving the site a relative age corresponding
with the Warthe stadial (OIS 6) of Saalian Complex. The site contains no preserved fauna. The artefacts come from fluvial, gravely, sandy detritus matrix, inserted within a periglacial permafrost formations with ice wedges and underlying
polygon soil. Weichsel time-climatic indicators lie well above the archaeological
horizon (2003: 598–599). The good quality Baltic flint industry with some 60 Late
Acheulean handaxes (40% of the finds), Levallois flakes, blades, racloirs (2003,
Figs 4, 5), suggests a specialized occupation, chronologically and typologically
distinct from the Lichtenberg Keilmesser occurrence in the region. Ochtmissen
represents an earlier hominid occupation in a periglacial habitat.
*OKLADNIKOV [41] (Derevianko 1998; Derevianko and Markin 1992;
Goebel 1993; Vasil’ev et al. 2002). This south-facing cave in the Siberian Altai, in
Sibiriiachikhai village, overlooking the river of the same name, in Soloneshensk
District (Derevianko and Markin 1992, Figs 1, 2), 51.7° N, lies in a complex karstic
limestone formation comprising a rockshelter, a cave and five galleries at different
levels, some unexcavated (1992, Fig. 3; 1998, Fig. 59). The report describes the
excavation and recording methods (1992, Chapter III) and contents. The deposits
Middle Palaeolithic milestones in Northern Eurasia
23
comprise up to ten strata, depending on excavated areas, whose thickness varies,
becoming thinner inside. The flora (1992: 79–81) indicates a steppe-woodland
mosaic, with birch, pine species, fir, oak, willow, alder and various non-arboreal
species (chenopods, sagebrush), analogous with the present-day habitat. Mammals also show an ecotone situation of steppe-tundra (woolly mammoth and
rhino, reindeer, horse, bison) and mountain (Siberian mountain goat) species,
argali, red deer, carnivores (cave hyena, wolf, wolverine, panther, lynx, fox, black
bear, small mammals and birds) (1992: 82–89). Freshwater fish remains, probably
anthropogenic, were present. The remarkable industry from seven archaeological
layers and 3819 artefacts shows fluctuating frequencies of Levallois flakes and
racloirs (straight, convergent, bilateral, dejetés) of variable sizes. Archaic modern
humans remains include large teeth and three long bones. The site is dated by 14C,
AMS and uranium, ranges from 32.4 to 44.8 ka (1992: 90), hence the Karginsk
(OIS 3) interstadial.
*SCLADINA 5 [8] (Otte et al. 1998). The Scladina cave is one of the Sclayn
karstic cavity complexes on the right bank of the Maas River, near Andenne,
Namur Province, 56.3° N. It overlooks the small Ri de Pontainne river. The
Scladina cave is a gallery ramification network, more or less filled with sediments
constituting 7 strata. Human evidence comes from: layer 1A and part of the underlying level 40, a later Middle Palaeolithic dated by 14C to 38 560 BP during
the OIS 3 Interpleniglacial; layer 4A containing a Neanderthal child remains,
but no artefacts; layer 5 representing the main occupation episode, with an early
Weichsel Middle Palaeolithic occurrence TL dated to 130 ka from burnt flints. The
palaeoclimatic succession, worked out in detail with revisions, shows alternating
temperate, boreal and cold episodes (1998, Fig. 2). Layer 5 was occupied during
the Saint-Germain 1B cold oscillation (1998, Table 5) correlated with OIS 5c/b,
with cryoclastic deposits. Mammals form an ecotone mosaic of alpine, steppetundra and forest elements, dominated by chamois, some ibex, woolly rhino and
mammoth, reindeer, horse, red deer, giant elk, red deer, roe deer, fallow deer, wolf,
cave lion, wild dog, fox, panther, cave hyena and wolverine (Patou-Mathis 1998,
Tables 1, 3, 5). Scladina functioned as a carnivore lair, with episodic hominid
occupations. The lithic industry (almost 9000 artefacts) includes raw materials
of local, nearby and distant sources, dominated by white quartz and followed by
chert, maastricht flint, brown quartzite, a few exotic flints, sandstone and phtanite.
Reduction techniques combined (depending on raw materials shape, size and texture) Levallois, discoid, single and bifacial cores (Moncel 1998: 181–247), as well
as specialized “methods” (Bourguignon 1998: 249–276) – also used at Susiluola,
Finland – that fits with the Quina variant technology.
SIBERIAN ALTAI MIDDLE PALAEOLITHIC [42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47] (Derevianko 1998; Derevianko et al. 2003; Goebel 1993; Vasil’ev et al. 2002). Largescale investigations yielded Late Pleistocene environmental fluctuations and Mid-
24
Nicolas Rolland
dle and Upper Palaeolithic sequences. The Altai combines Central Asian and
South Siberian characteristics, with vegetation mosaics of Central Asian, Siberian
and Mandchurian biomes. The Pleistocene habitats remained very continental
during temperate and stadial phases with marked seasonal contrasts, despite lack
of permafrost. The known sites covered briefly below illustrate situations with micro-environmental differences. The Middle Palaeolithic contains typical technotypological features, as well as original ones like the recurrence of true bifacial
leafpoints. Several sites evidence Middle to Upper Palaeolithic transitional horizons. This indicates clearly that the transition remained an entirely self-contained
linear development.
Denisova Cave, 51.4° N, adjacent to the Anui River, contains a lengthy Palaeolithic sequence during changing bio-climatic condition, in the context of an enclosed valley through which ungulate herds migrated. Ust’ Karakol is an open-air
site, 51.4° N, in an open setting at the contact of several valleys, containing Middle Palaeolithic series; Ust’Kanskaiia Cave, 50.1° N, overlooks the Charysh river,
an affluent of the Ob river, and dominates a wide vista of converging valleys. It
was sheltered most of the year against wind or cold. It has a long, complex Middle
and Upper Palaeolithic series and fauna; Kara-Bom, a large open-air occurrence
with wide vista, 50.7° N, contains another long Middle and Upper Palaeolithic
series, including early Middle to Upper Palaeolithic transition; Kaminnaiia Cave,
at 51.3° N lies near the end of a moist and narrower valley, with Middle and Early
Upper Palaeolithic horizons.
*SUSILUOLA [37] (“WOLF CAVE”) (Mahaney et al. 2001; Rolland n.d.,
Schultz et al. 2002). The site, 62.2° N and 116.5 ASL, is located 2 km from
Karijoki town, South Ostrobothnia, Western Finland. It consists of a wide horizontal cave fissure filled by Quaternary deposits at the top of Susivuori (“Wolf
Hill”), developed from Precambrian granite and gneiss covered by Quaternary
deposits. Palaeolithic artefacts, discovered when enlarging the space inside the
cave, prompted research by a multi-disciplinary team. Ostrobothnia benefits from
a well-studied record of Pleistocene littoral deposits from marine transgression,
tills and eskers left by the Saalian and Weichsel glacials. Seven geological strata
were identified: layers I and II are the early Neothermal with rocks, boulders and
sediments washed in by marine wave action and packed ice; layer III’s geological
origin is unknown; layers IV 1 and IV 2 form a weathering horizon and Eemian
interglacial floor, developed from layer V’s sand and gravel; layer VI is a littoral
deposit; layer VII consists of dark gravel of unknown morphogenesis. Several
criteria support an Eemian (OIS 5e) age: pollen samples (Schultz et al. 2002,
Figs 16, 17) embedded in the washed-in sediments showing a tree-dominated
(birch, pine, spruce, Alnus) landscape for layer IV; littoral deposits inside the cave
with clay minerals and Fe-Ai elements indicating a warmer and wetter palaeoclimate than presently; TL, OSL and IRSL radiometric dates show >100 ka that
Middle Palaeolithic milestones in Northern Eurasia
25
correlates with similar local and regional evidence (Hütt et al. 1993; Mahaney et
al. 2001; Nenonen et al. 1991). Pleistocene faunal remains were not preserved in
Susiluola, though interglacial and interstadial evidence of mammoth and reindeer
were found in the region (Kurtén 1988; Ukkonen et al. 1999).
This unexpected discovery and geographically eccentric location of “Wolf
Cave” was received sceptically initially, despite its Pleistocene deposits. Discriminating Palaeolithic artefacts from “geofactual noise” in materials modified
by geological compression and water abrasion can be problematic. Several criteria, nevertheless, support the Palaeolithic identity: (1) lithic raw materials. Seven
different kinds of materials are present and their flaking properties were examined: four or five are local (red, grey quartzite, quartz, red sandstone, volcanic?),
two are exotic, hence introduced by human action, namely yellow-brown or
reddish-brown small siltstone pebbles, and fine-grained quartzite (Schultz et al.
2002: 18–21, Fig. 8); (2) large number of pieces with diagnostic flake release
attributes (Schultz et al. 2002, Plate I); (3) artefacts clearly concentrated in four
layers grouped as archaeological units, instead of scattered randomly throughout
the sequence, had they been pseudo-artefacts. Unit I, Early Holocene, contains
18 pieces, whereas 748 pieces cluster in Unit II or layers IV–V. Some 112 are
from the lower Unit III (layers VI–VII); (4) an in situ pavement and artefacts in
the layer IV interglacial floor (Schultz et al. 2002, Fig. 7); (5) fire traces shown
by burnt stones at the edge of the pavement and strong susceptibility measurement anomalies in fine sediments near the stones, splinters and rock fragments
from the cave vault and charcoal particles, a charcoal lens among big boulders
near the entrance (removed during the cave enlargement). Most layers show disturbance and re-deposition.
Despite the artefacts’ weathered, abraded state, two reduction techniques are
identified (Schultz et al. 2002, Figs 13, 14) – see also Scladina Cave, Belgium
– conditioned by raw material shape, size, texture and flaking properties: “parallel
flaking on two crossing axes and core rotation” for red siltstone and fine quartzite;
“alternate flaking on two crossing axes” for other quartzites and sandstone, and
bipolar reduction for vein quartz (one flake-blade piece). Typological identification, despite water abrasion, shows denticulates, notches, side scrapers and choppers. The Eemian age and assemblage contents indicate a Middle Palaeolithic
occurrence. Fieldwork, interrupted to allow consolidation work of the cave roof
to prevent collapse, was resumed with limited probing. Unexcavated layers and
much archaeological material lie at the back of the cave (Schultz, personal communication 2001).
The apparently isolated situation of Susiluola, at 62.2° N in Scandinavia, is
more apparent than real. It compares with the Pontnewydd Cave, North Wales,
26
Nicolas Rolland
Cotte St. Brelade, and Roche Gélétan, Normandy. During the peak Eemian warm
episode and highest sea transgression, Susivuori became a small island in the
Gulf of Bothnia. Other high latitude Middle Palaeolithic occurrences exist in the
Western Urals and Yakutia. Middle Palaeolithic occupation during interglacials
or interstadials probably took place in Karelia and Eastern Baltic, but a virtual
absence of caves (Susiluola that acted as unique sediment trap) made probable
obliteration by Last Fennoscandian ice sheet advances. The Middle Palaeolithic
human occupation of Susiluola was an occupation palimpsest during a brief Last
Interglacial span. Humans colonizing boreal forest habitats burned deliberately
bush and woodlands, the spread of hazelnuts being an anthropogenic marker
(Clark 1975: 53).
UST’ IZHUL’ [48] (Chlachula et al. 2003; Drozdov et al. 1999). The site,
at 55.1° N south of Kranoyarsk, Kurtak archaeological region in the Minusinsk
Basin, a part of the Yenisei drainage system, bound west by the Kuznetsky-Alatau range, the Sayans to the south and east, lies on the west side of Kranoyarsk
Lake formed by the Yenisei hydraulic dam. Fluctuation water levels eroded
loessic deposits, exposing an intact land surface containing archaeological materials (mammoth remains, artefacts, hearths). Quaternary investigations (Drozdov et al. 1999) uncovered a lengthy Mid- and Late Pleistocene time-climatic
sequence showing alternating loess, ice wedges, colluviated loess, palaeosols,
and chernozem horizons. The Last, or Kazantsevo interglacial (OIS 5e) age of
Ust’ Izhul’ is established by: detailed local stratigraphic series, including a steppe
chernozem horizon, widespread throughout the southern Siberian loess region;
the Blake geomagnetic event above the chernozem horizon; pollen analysis; microtine fauna; land molluscs; the thick mammoth molar enamel indicating an archaic, residual Mid-Pleistocene trait; 14C dates > 45 ka, IRSL dates of ca. 125 ka.
This evidence indicates a steppe-parkland landscape, milder and moister than
the present-day severe hyper-continental cold climate. Archaeological evidence
revolves around a butchering surface with remains of at least 12 mammoths
(mostly adults), rhino and bison, bearing traces of dismemberment, cutmarks and
parallel striations. Three hearths are found in the site. The industry includes 220
mint artefacts, mostly in situ, consisting largely (204 pieces) in utilized flakes
(some conjoinable) bearing use-wear traces, a few retouched pieces, cores and
choppers. There are flaked mammoth bones and teeth ivory, flaked rhino and
bison bones. Ust’ Izhul’ provides evidence for reconstructing Middle Palaeolithic
habitats and life styles in the Kurtak region. The vegetation combined southern
taiga spruce, pine, Siberian pine, birch, and steppe grassland. Mammals (mammoth, rhino, reindeer, giant elk, bison, saiga, bear and small mammals) show
a rich biodiversity in an ecotone situation of steppe and parkland. Mammoths
were probably driven off a terrace and steep slope towards the riverside into
marshy soft grounds, suggested by the site’s position above the confluence of the
Ust’ Izhul’ and Yenisei palaeorivers.
Middle Palaeolithic milestones in Northern Eurasia
27
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