In July 2020, our team visited several Paleolithic sites in the Altai Mountains of southern Siberia. We had geographical coordinates of sites investigated in the 1980s-1990s, including Maloyalomanskaya Cave and Kara-Tenesh, but, of course, those coordinates proved to be incorrect! Local people were very kind and helped us find Maloyalomanskaya Cave, which is in good condition. One gallery in particular seems to have good potential for further excavation. We plan to take samples for OSL and 14C dating next year.
The situation at Kara-Tenesh is less clear. The site’s geographical coordinates were basically correct and we located the site after only one or two hours’ search. But, the area of this site is huge and we tried with difficulty to understand where the Paleolithic excavation pit was situated. This site is an Afontovo Culture settlement, with deeply stratified Paleolithic material in some parts of the site. In 2021, we will excavate several test pits to further identify the Paleolithic layer.
The other goal of our survey was the search for lithic raw material sources utilized by the ancient inhabitants of the Kara Bom site. Just one preliminary word – success!!! More to follow…soon.
We also found two new Paleolithic localities. All of this looks promising and will undoubtedly keep us productively engaged if the Covid-19 pandemic continues.
PaleoMongolia 