Adaptation of Flaking Technology to the Raw Materials Used at the Sakhyurta-1 Paleolithic Site in Eastern Transbaikalia

The article is devoted to the study of the adaptation of flaking technology to the mineral raw materials using the example of the Stone Age site of Sakhyurta-1 in Eastern Transbaikalia. Currently, in Transbaikal Paleolithic studies, the most studied in terms of Stone Age archeology is Western Transbaikalia, in which the supporting sites of the Upper – Final Paleolithic are located. Eastern Transbaikalia is poorly studied in terms of the presence of stratified Stone Age objects. The Sakhyurta-1 site has a number of radiocarbon dates, it is a stratified multilayered site with studied stratigraphy, which is located on mineral outcrops, that makes it an important object for studying the Stone Age of Transbaikalia and ensures the relevance of the study. The basis of the methodological approach used in the work is technological archeominerageny. This technique is part of the spectrum of petroarchaeological methods and includes an assessment of the area for the presence of high-quality mineral sources, using the concepts of modern minerageny – the study of the spatial distribution of outputs of specific types of mineral raw materials; a search for workshops and the Stone Age sites in this area based on the geomorphology and Quaternary geology of the area, and a comprehensive analysis of the obtained collections to identify the rocks used for splitting and their technological properties, which allows us to link the raw materials with flaking technology at the site under study due to the joint use of the main archaeological methods of studying stone artifacts. Based on these approaches and technical and typological analysis, the presence of a specific type of core at the site was established, designated as a core of the Sakhyurta type, which has a stable series in the collections of the fourth and third cultural horizons. A hypothesis is also presented that the Sakhyurta-1 site can be attributed to a variant of the Kunalei culture, widespread in Western Transbaikalia, given the close morphology of the stone inventory, the presence of a series of double borers, chisel-like tools, and scrapers

Archaeology · Biology · Cave · Geography · Middle Paleolithic · Raw material · Upper Paleolithic · Image Processing and 3D Reconstruction · Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology · Psychology · Ecology · Geology