How much coal will India need to transport in future and is the rail network poised to handle that requirement are two important questions for the emerging economy. To find answers to these questions, this study creates a distribution model of coal freight traffic on Indian Railways, analyzing the sufficiency of infrastructure for future economic needs. Using data on spatial distribution of coal mines, coal traffic volumes and rail sectional capacities, this study creates sectional capacity maps as main visual tool for analysis. Sections with bottlenecks are identified for next ten years' coal transport need of the country. The simulation done in this study finds 15% under-delivery for the 900mT coal demand in the country by 2030 due to transport bottlenecks. Based on this analysis, the article presents the conclusions on possible influence of existing conditions of coal transportation on India's economy in the long-term period and also considers the role of dedicated freight. JEL Codes: E17, L92, L98, R41, R42
The study of cut-marks on bones from archaeological complexes is required to reconstruct many aspects of societies' activities, including hunting, economic and food activities of ancient humans. The profile of cut-marks can be influenced by shape of the tool edge and its inclination to the bone. To determine this influence an experimental modeling was carried out. Experimental lithic tools were used to produce cut-marks at 90˚ and 45˚ to the bone surface of the cleaned from meat domestic cow's scapula. Classical statistical methods were applied to analyze the metric parameters and the opening angle. To analyze the shape without dimensional characteristics, the 2D geometric-morphometric analysis was used. Cross sections for geometric-morphometric analysis were obtained using an industrial profilometer. The results reveal that the type of stone tool and its position in the hand during operation significantly influence the shape and size of cut-marks. Perpendicular cutting marks are on average deeper and have a smaller opening angle than those produced by oblique cutting for the three cutting edge types. Several groups of cuts made by different types of blades, but at the same angle, have similar opening angles, while when one tool is held differently, the opening angles differ significantly. The cut-marks made with one-sided and two-sided retouched tools differ in size and opening angle at different inclinations of the tools, but have the similar shape. The traces made with an unretouched edge have different shape and size according to the inclination of the tool. This study is the first step to create a digital comparative collection of experimental cuts that will be used for further studies of cut-marks.
Research in recent years has demonstrated complex Neanderthal activity, comparable to that of anatomically modern humans, in the context of bone tool production, pigments, adhesive compositions and non-utilitarian activities. The most numerous and widespread bone tools in Eurasian and African Middle Paleolithic are retouchers, which have been investigated for more than a century. The paper discusses various research approaches to the study of bone retouchers and the scientific results obtained throughout the history of the study of these tools. Traditionally, retouchers have been perceived by researchers as informal, situationally applied tools for retouching, or shaping various stone tools. Nevertheless, the scientific results obtained in the study of retouchers demonstrate the possibilities of their interpretation as formal tools and often link them to possible ritual activities, including the practice of cannibalism.
Late European Neanderthals, associated with the Micoquian techno-complex, spread over vast area from Western Europe to the Altai. There were no sites found in the territories to the east of the Volga region. The key site of the Eastern Micoquian, Sukhaya Mechetka, which was discovered in 1951 in the Volgograd region, was for a long time the eastern outpost of Neanderthals in Eurasia. In the last five years, the results of paleogenetic analysis have confirmed the archaeological hypothesis of the migration of late European Neanderthals, the producers of the Micoquian, from Central and Eastern Europe to Altai. Until then, the genesis of Altai industries was associated with a wide range of European and Near Eastern techno-complexes, and anthropological remains were interpreted more in a Near Eastern context. In this regard, the industry of the Sukhaya Mechetka site, located on the route of the supposed migration of the Micoquians, acquires additional relevance in the research of the variability of the easternmost complexes of this cultural tradition. The attributive and technological analysis of tool kit from Sukhaya Mechetka was carried out and, using mathematical statistics methods, their results were compared with the available data on the Altai sites: Chagyrskaya and Okladnikov Caves. The new data were supplemented by the published materials from the Sukhaya Mechetka site. As a result, high level of technical-typological similarity of the compared industries in the context of primary flaking, bifacial tool production, tool typology and morphology was revealed. The structure of the Sukhaya Mechetka tool kit is closest to the Chagirskaya Сave, which is characterized by a large number of simple side-scrapers. At the same time, the site lacks of high-quality raw materials used to make bifacial items and intensively worked unifacial tools. In the Okladnikov Cave complexes this deficit is less. In composition and morphology of unifacial and bifacial tools, Sukhaya Mechetka is closest to the assemblages of the Antonovka I site and Chagyrkaya Cave. They share similarity with Okladnikov Cave in terms of a significant number of leaf-shaped and crescent-shaped tools. Some new characteristics were additionally determined for the assemblage of Sukhaya Mechetka. It was established that the primary decortications of cores was carried out outside the site. We also reconstructed the stages of production, rejuvenating and reshaping of bifaces on the site.
The article presents the oldest evidence of non- utilitarian use of marmot incisors in North Asia. The ornamented marmot incisor comes from the Early Holocene layer of the Kaminnaya Cave. The artifact was studied by methods of high precision three-dimensional modeling, experiment and traceological analysis. In order to obtain detailed information on the morphological characteristics of the artificial relief, a high-precision three-dimensional scanner of structured light and a three-dimensional surface profiler were used to analyze and compare the features of artificial modification on the surfaces of both the prehistoric artifact and its experimental replicas. As a result, the method of modification was reconstructed, and the non-utilitarian function of the object was identified. The concluding part of the article touches upon the interaction between marmots and man in the Pleistocene and Holocene of the Altai Mountains, with special attention paid to their use in the Holocene funeral practices.
