TY - JOUR

T1 - Testing the perspectives for discovery of the Paleolithic sites in the northern portion of the Ob river valley: Quaternary geology, paleogeography, and geomorphology

AU - Zolnikov, Ivan D.

AU - Vybornov, Anton V.

AU - Postnov, Alexander V.

AU - Rybalko, Andrey G.

AU - Kartoziia, Andrei A.

N1 - Funding Information: The research was supported by the Russian Science Foundation , grant Multidisciplinary Research in Archeology and Ethnography of Northern and Central Asia (Project No. 14-50-00036 ). Publisher Copyright: © 2018 Elsevier Ltd Copyright: Copyright 2019 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.

PY - 2019/3/1

Y1 - 2019/3/1

N2 - The earliest known archaeological sites North of the Arctic circle are separated from the other Paleolithic sites in Eurasia by vast territories, for which early human occupation is yet to be found. In the Ob River valley, Paleolithic sites are known in the Arctic while the northernmost Late Pleistocene site is located one thousand kilometers south. In the Lower Ob, previous environmental reconstructions supported the idea of a hiatus in occupation, however; new data demonstrate that the development of glaciers and lakes was asynchronous. It suggests that the West Siberian Plain became more suitable for human population than originally thought after the Taz glacial stage. The abundance of landforms and lithic raw material sources suitable for human settlement predicts that the area could have been inhabited during the Late Pleistocene. Hence, we conducted surveys to fully test the potential of this region. We report here the discovery of Pleistocene fauna (including mammoth bones) and possible Paleolithic artefacts in the Ob River Valley, on the slopes near Belogorsk Heights, and the North in the Hashgort Ob area. These findings provide perspectives for further investigation in the lower of the Ob river valley in search for the evidence for human occupation during the Paleolithic.

AB - The earliest known archaeological sites North of the Arctic circle are separated from the other Paleolithic sites in Eurasia by vast territories, for which early human occupation is yet to be found. In the Ob River valley, Paleolithic sites are known in the Arctic while the northernmost Late Pleistocene site is located one thousand kilometers south. In the Lower Ob, previous environmental reconstructions supported the idea of a hiatus in occupation, however; new data demonstrate that the development of glaciers and lakes was asynchronous. It suggests that the West Siberian Plain became more suitable for human population than originally thought after the Taz glacial stage. The abundance of landforms and lithic raw material sources suitable for human settlement predicts that the area could have been inhabited during the Late Pleistocene. Hence, we conducted surveys to fully test the potential of this region. We report here the discovery of Pleistocene fauna (including mammoth bones) and possible Paleolithic artefacts in the Ob River Valley, on the slopes near Belogorsk Heights, and the North in the Hashgort Ob area. These findings provide perspectives for further investigation in the lower of the Ob river valley in search for the evidence for human occupation during the Paleolithic.

KW - MAMMUTHUS-PRIMIGENIUS BLUM.

KW - WOOLLY MAMMOTH

KW - ASIA

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85057078390&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1016/j.ara.2018.11.001

DO - 10.1016/j.ara.2018.11.001

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85057078390

VL - 17

SP - 109

EP - 116

JO - Archaeological Research in Asia

JF - Archaeological Research in Asia

SN - 2352-2267

ER -