Modern Approaches to Determining the Origin of Paleolithic Industries | Sibirskie Istoricheskie Issledovaniia – Siberian Historical Research. 2024. № 3. DOI: 10.17223/2312461X/45/6

Modern Approaches to Determining the Origin of Paleolithic Industries

Questions concerning the origins of stone industries, migration routes and modes of interaction between ancient hominin populations are among the most complex and controversial in archaeological research. There are several variants of the origin of stone industries according to archaeological data, often supplemented by palaeogenetic and anthropological data: migration (cultural transfer), exchange of technologies and ideas (technological transfer), convergent evolution. The justification of each variant is based on comprehensive technological, typological and statistical studies. In recent decades, these studies have been intensified by the groundbreaking work in absolute dating, palaeogenetics and anthropology, which have made it possible to determine migration processes, the species affiliation of anthropological remains and the chronological framework of different Stone Age cultures. As a result of these papers, there has been a significant increase in the number of archaeological studies analyzing lithic industries as the main manifestation of the cultural identity of the hominins that produced them. This revealed new intercontinental migrations of Neanderthals from Europe to the Altai and anatomically modern humans from the Middle East to the Middle East, from the Altai to Mongolia and China. The Upper Paleolithic complexes in the Middle East and Central Asia, previously thought to be the result of local evolution, are now considered in the context of migration. The reasons for migrations are usually considered to be paleoecological factor -deteriorations in climatic conditions that forced human populations to seek new places to live. The accumulation of new materials has led to an increase in the complexity of the general pattern of population interactions, which now includes reverse migrations. The proposed paper discusses the main methodological approaches to determining the origin of Paleolithic lithic industries, their strengths and weaknesses. Unfortunately, they have not yet been published in the Russian-language research literature and are not yet widely used. The author declares no conflict of interests.

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Keywords

Palaeolithic, migrations, technology exchange, convergent evolution, research approach

Authors

Name	Organization	E-mail
Kolobova Kseniya A.	Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences	kolobovak@yandex.ru

Всего: 1

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