The Initial Upper Paleolithic in Central and East Asia: Blade Technology, Cultural Transmission, and Implications for Human Dispersals

Archaeological assemblages labeled as Initial Upper Paleolithic are often seen as possible evidence for dispersals of Homo sapiens populations in Eurasia, ca. 45,000 years ago. While most authors agree that the IUP can be recognized by a set of shared features, there is far less consensus on what these features are, and what they mean. Because of methodological challenges inherent to long distance comparisons, documenting and establishing a firm connection between archaeological assemblages remain difficult and often draw legitimate skepticism. There could be many reasons why Paleolithic hunter-gatherers used comparable technologies, but it usually comes down to two kinds of processes: cultural transmission or convergence. In other words, technological similarities may illustrate a cultural link between regions or may be caused by mechanisms of independent reinvention between more distantly related populations. Here, I focus on three assemblages from the Siberian Altai, Zabaikal region, and North Mongolia to address one main question: is there such thing as a united IUP in Central and East Asia, or are we looking at unrelated yet comparable adaptive processes? First, I describe the common structure of lithic blade production at the sites, with special attention to derived features relative to the regional sequence. After comparing the complexity of the production system with those of other lithic technologies, I suggest that this coherent, intricate, yet unprecedented technological pattern found across contiguous regions in Asia is better explained by transmission processes than by multiple unrelated reinventions, or local developments. The blade production system described in Siberia and Mongolia reoccur as a package, which is consistent with indirect bias and/or conformist cultural transmission processes. Overall, the results point toward close contact between individuals and hunter gatherer populations, and supports the recognition of a broad cultural unit to encapsulate Asian IUP assemblages. Considering other lines of evidence, the geographical and chronological distribution of Asian IUP lithic technology is consistent with a dispersal of Homo sapiens populations in Central and East Asia during the Marine Isotopic Stage 3, although the geographical origin of such movement is less clear.

Evidence of Absence or Absence of Evidence?

The last hunter-gatherers of the central and western Mediterranean are associated with the Castelnovian technocomplex, which developed during the seventh millennium BC and is characterized mainly by its lithic industries, which reflect important changes that occurred during the Late Mesolithic: debitage from this time is oriented towards blade production by pressure-flaking and the manufacture of special tools, such as trapezes (made by the microburin technique) and notched blades. Although rare, Castelnovian sites have been identified in the wider Adriatic region of south-central Italy, Albania, Montenegro and the Italian and Slovenian Karst. However, it seems that the Croatian coast and its hinterland in the eastern Adriatic lack any traces. No sites were found in Dalmatia and only a few questionable surface finds come from Istria. This study explores whether this absence is due to historical factors, such as depopulation during the Late Mesolithic or the region being outside the Castelnovian expansion route, or whether it is because of a combination of taphonomic causes (such as loss of sites by marine transgression) and lack of previous research. The paper also focuses on the hypothesis that the presence of the last hunter-gatherers can be detected indirectly through the persistence of Castelnovian elements in the oldest Neolithic Impressed Ware assemblages of the eastern Adriatic. I further propose that Castelnovian traits are observable in the Impressed Ware assemblages of Istria. This Mesolithic tradition consists of the use of local flint, blade production by indirect percussion and ‘simpler’ forms of pressure flaking in lithic production, while marine resources remain an important food resource.

Blade Production in the Stone Industry of the Upper Palaeolithic Site Tri Skaly (Western Transbaikalian)

In 2015 the investigations on a new multi-layered archaeological site named Tri Skaly started. The analysis of the stone artifacts showed that lithological layers 3–5 contains the homogenous materials‑ typical to the early stage of the Upper Palaeolithic in the Western Transbaikalia. Materials under consideration include such important component of the primary knapping as blades and cores used for blade production. The first results of the investigations showed that the industry of the Tri Skaly site is among the industries combined into Tolbaga Palaeolithic culture which is characterized by the prevailing of the making tools from stone blades. This article is devoted to the consideration of the blade component in the stone industry of the 3–5 lithological layers of the Tri Skaly site which is situated in the central part of the Selenga Highlands. Based on the studies carried out, it has been established that the typology and morphology of the main groups of stone artifacts of the Tri Skaly in most parameters are similar to the materials of such sites of the early Upper Paleolithic of Western Transbaikalia as Tolbaga and the Eastern Podzvonkoy complex. A significantly smaller number of blades of the Tri Skaly is noted in comparison with the ones from Tolbaga and the Eastern Podzvonka complex, converted into tools or used as tools without preliminary retouching. Presumably, this may be due to the specifics of the excavated area, where primary knapping was mainly carried out.