Last interglacial peopling of Siberia: the Middle Palaeolithic site Ust'-Izhul', the upper Yenisei area

Abstract

Multidisciplinary Quaternary investigations in the Minusinsk Basin in the upper Yenisei River region and other southern Siberian continental depressions have produced evidence of prehistoric peopling pre-dating the last glacial stage (>100 ka BP). Abundant 'pebble tools' and bone artefacts exposed from eroded alluvia of the Yenisei River terraces indicate repeated occupation of this territory since the Middle Pleistocene. A new stage of expansion of the early human occupation habitat occurred around the last interglacial (OIS 5e) by a Middle Palaeolithic (Neanderthaloid?) population characterized by a core and flake stone industry and open-air occupation sites. The key camp/kill-processing site at Ust'-Izhul', dated to c. 125 ka BP and documenting complex behavioural activities, is so far the most complete in situ pre-Late Palaeolithic site found in Siberia. This unique record provides new insights into the timing and the palaeoenvironmental conditions of the Pleistocene colonization of north-central Asia.