The Paleolithic of Siberia: new discoveries and interpretations

Abstract

This large volume is essential for any Americanist interested in the question of the original peopling of the Americas. It presents comprehensive summaries of most of the large number of Paleolithic sites of Pleistocene age known from Siberia and the Russian Far East, written by archaeologists working in each part of this vast territory. The important work in Yakutia by Yuri Mochanov is not summarized; and Nikolai Dikov's work in Kamchatka and Chukotka is only briefly summarized by Ruslan Vasil'evskiy. However, these gaps, except for the significant Diring Yuriakh site, are adequately filled by West's American Beginnings and Bland's translation of Dikov's Asia at the Juncture with America in Antiquity. A final report on Diring Yuriakh, the farthest north known Lower Paleolithic site, is being prepared by Mochanov.Demitri Shimkin suggested a volume in English bringing together all the scattered references on the Siberian Paleolithic, and he arranged for the University of Illinois Press to publish it; but he died before being able to assist in its production. Inna Laricheva's translation of Derev'anko's compilation was organized and edited by Roger Powers and put into final form by Olga Soffer. The product, which contains remarkably few typographical errors, will be a significant data source for a long time to come. Like many edited compilations, however, the result was published almost a decade after the last data included; so readers will expect a sequel detailing all of the significant work accomplished during the 1990s, including that of a new generation of archaeologists.Derev'anko intended the volume to be a compilation of basic data and not simply a set of interpretations, which are subject to change. Nevertheless, he allowed the authors of regional summaries to expand on their data; and German Medvedev's summary of the Angara River region is particularly memorable, perhaps because it includes a discussion of the impressive art style found only at the Mal'ta and Buret sites. The origin of this unique late-Upper Paleolithic art style remains a puzzle. Did it develop in situ or was it introduced from the west, as many authors have suggested?Pervading the entire volume are the basic questions of where Paleolithic Siberians came from, when they arrived and with what level of technology. Because these fundamental historical questions for any part of the world remain open for examination in Russia, these questions are closer to being answered in Siberia than they are in North America, where most archaeologists have simply assumed they know the answers; so they readily accept frequent attempts to explain away data that do not support the model of initial entry with an Upper Paleolithic lithic technology no earlier than about 14 000 years ago.The crudeness of flaked pebbles recovered from the earliest sites, such as Ulalinka, can be questioned, and it does not help that the artifact drawings are not backed up by photographs; but nevertheless the evidence presented clearly supports the consensus that people with a Lower Paleolithic pebble and flake technology lived in Siberia early in the Middle Pleistocene, if not during the Lower Pleistocene before half a million years ago. …

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