Suchergebnisse

An archaeological culture is one of the base terms of archaeology. The content of this term was discussed from the time of its introduction into scientific discourse. During the investigations in Transbaikalia, researchers asserted about Stone Age archaeological cultures for the first time at the beginning of the 1930s. Till the beginning of the 1890s, A. P. Okladnikov's opinion has prevailed. According to him, Transbaikalia Paleolithic represented a monocultural phenomenon. This point of view is developed by some archaeologists in the present day. Additionally beginning from the 1960s the idea about existing of several archaeological cultures in the Transbaikalia Paleolithic has been generated. In the 1930s the distinguishing archaeological cultures in Transbaikalia Stone Age was based on morphology and typology of stone artifacts. In this sense, the technology of stone tools production was considered to a lesser degree. At the end of the 20th century, the main emphasis has been given to the tools' production technology as the key component of the stone industry. Therefore, while a theoretical base of Transbaikalia Paleolithic developed stone industry was in the base of identifying archaeological cultures with the shift of some accents from morphology and typology to the technology of production. Gradually together with stone industry data of cultural horizons spatial organization becomes involved as supporting elements in distinguishing archaeological cultures in Transbaikalia. At the same time often the only stone industry is accessible for the investigations, and it demonstrates the main trend of Paleolithic material culture development. Using the complex of different criteria for distinguishing archaeological culture corresponds to the system approach which is recently developed intensively. As a result of the assessment of the synchronous stone industries of Transbaikalia, we concluded that the archaeological culture is the tool of the interpretational level and reflects phenomena that really existed in the past. It is proposed to use as criteria not only typology, morphology, and technology, reconstructed on the base of the stone industry but also life subsistent strategies reconstructed with the taking into consideration all available data. Such strategies could be conditioned by the environment, but also are the reflection of the development of the technological traditions inherent to the given culture.

The article presents the results of the chronological investigations of the South-Eastern Assemblage (SEA) of Podzvonkaya site. Podzvonkaya is a key site for the Paleolithic research in Western Transbaikalia, it includes four assemblages. SEC yielded a series of sequentially embedded cultural horizons in two lithological layers (4th and 5th horizons). A series of radiocarbon dates (LSC and AMS) were obtained for cultural layers located at different levels. One half of them were made in the late 1990s, the other quite recently. Dates obtained by liquid scintillation give a large error, in addition, such dates obtained more recently show a much older age. The AMS and LSC dates obtained recently are generally consistent with each other, and due to a small error in the original data, the calibrated AMS dates fall within the short one-thousandth period from 42 to 43 ka cal BP. From our point of view, the most correct dates are those obtained recently, and SEA represents an area that was periodically inhabited within a relatively short period. SEA stone industry characterized by the production of large blades and tools made from them. In general, the archaeological materials of this assemblage are largely similar to the stone industry of the sites of the Tolbaga culture (Tolbaga, Kamenka A, Khotyk, level 3, etc.). A series of radiocarbon dates was obtained for the Tolbaga Upper Paleolithic assemblage, which together reflects three stages of occupation of the Tolbaga site from the Initial Upper Paleolithic to the middle stage of Upper Paleolithic. Radiocarbon dates of Kamenka A site are represented in a denser group; its archaeological materials are contained in a compact culture-bearing layer. Calibrated AMS dates of Kamenka A show a period of 40–45 cal BP. According to the chronology, South-Eastern Assemblage of Podzvonkaya site is well correlated with the assemblage of Paleolithic site Kamenka A, which presents materials of Initial Upper Paleolithic. Podzvonkaya SEC and Kamenka A could coexist in the period of 42–43 ka cal BP. In general, according to the chronology and characteristics of the stone industry, South-Eastern Assemblage of Podzvonskaya belongs to the Initial Upper Paleolithic.