Archaeological Materials from the Middle Nyapan Stage of the Sartanian Stadial from Kaminnaya Cave (Northwestern Altai)
Abstract
The article presents the results of a comprehensive study of materials derived from the sediments of Layer 13 in Kaminnaya Cave, which date to the middle Nyapan stage of the Sartan (Akkem) deposits (MIS 2) in Northwestern Altai. The paper is aimed at characterization of various aspects of fossil human culture and the associated environmental conditions during the terminal stage of the Upper Paleolithic in the Altai region. The cave profile showed alluvial and loamy sediments, which included products of bedrock disintegration and a filler of diverse mineralogical composition. The paper examines issues of stratigraphy, biostratigraphy, and chronology of the layer, demonstrating that its sedimentation occurred under conditions of various open landscapes. The lithic industry of the middle Nyapan stage, which holds the rank of a climatostratigraphic subdivision of the Sartan glaciation, contains lithic industries from the terminal stage of the Upper Paleolithic of one of the regions within the Altai-Sayan mountain area. The petrographic properties of the stone inventory have determined, and the typological and technological characteristics of the technocomplex, based on parallel blank production, have been identifited. Various elongated and shortened flakes were used as blanks. The tool assemblage is characterized by a combination of Upper Paleolithic and archaic artifact types. Various types of side-scrapers, notched tools, and denticulate tools are represented in the collection. A significant portion of the tool assemblage consisted of end-scrapers and side-scrapers, including those with a well-prepared working edge, as well as retouched blades. Samples of chisel-like pieces, awls with a prepared tip, atypical burins, and foliate bifaces are also present. At the same time, the micro-inventory, such as backed bladelets, which are widely represented in the underlying and overlying technocomplexes of the cave dated to various phases of the Sartanian period, were not noted. The recovered materials from the sediments of the middle Nyapan stage represent in integral part of the Paleolithic industries of the terminal stage of the Upper Paleolithic in Northwestern Altai.