Table Of Contentmore information – www.cambridge.org/9781107030299
Animal Teeth and Human Tools
ATaphonomicOdysseyinIceAgeSiberia
Theculminationofmorethanadecadeoffieldworkandrelatedstudy,thisuniquebook
usesanalysesofperimortemtaphonomyinIceAgeSiberiatoproposeanewhypothesis
forthepeoplingoftheNewWorld.
The authors present evidence based on examinations of more than 9000 pieces of
human-andcarnivore-damagedbonefrom28latePleistoceneandtwospecialHolocene
archaeologicalandpaleontologicalsites,includingcaveandopenlocations,whichspan
morethan2000miles,fromtheObRiverintheWesttotheSeaofJapanintheEast.The
observed bone damage signatures suggest that the conventional prehistory of Siberia
needsrevisionand,inparticular,thatcavehyenashadasignificantinfluenceonthelives
ofIceAgeSiberians.
Thefindingsaresupportedbymorethan250photographs,whichillustratethebone
damagedescribedandprovidea valuable insightintothecontextandlandscape ofthe
fieldworkforthoseunfamiliarwithSiberia.
ChristyG.TurnerIIisRegents’ProfessorEmeritusoftheSchoolofHumanEvolutionand
SocialChange,ArizonaStateUniversity.Heisinternationallyrecognizedforhisworkon
human dentition and, more recently, for his taphonomic studies of cannibalism in the
AmericanSouthwest.
Nicolai D. Ovodov is Chief Research Collaborator at the Institute of Archaeology and
Ethnography, Novosibirsk, Russia. He is well known in Russia for his important con-
tributionstoSiberianpaleontologyandpaleoanthropology.
OlgaV.PavlovawasatranslatorwiththeRussianAcademyofSciencesformorethan30
yearsinboththeInstituteofGeologyandGeophysicsandtheInstituteofArchaeology
andEthnography.
Animal Teeth and Human Tools
A Taphonomic Odyssey in Ice Age Siberia
CHRISTY G. TURNER II
ArizonaStateUniversity
NICOLAI D. OVODOV
InstituteofArchaeologyandEthnography,Novosibirsk
OLGA V. PAVLOVA
cambridge university press
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Singapore,SãoPaulo,Delhi,MexicoCity
CambridgeUniversityPress
TheEdinburghBuilding,CambridgeCB28RU,UK
PublishedintheUnitedStatesofAmericabyCambridgeUniversityPress,NewYork
www.cambridge.org
Informationonthistitle:www.cambridge.org/9781107030299
©ChristyG.TurnerII,NicolaiD.OvodovandOlgaV.Pavlova2013
Thispublicationisincopyright.Subjecttostatutoryexception
andtotheprovisionsofrelevantcollectivelicensingagreements,
noreproductionofanypartmaytakeplacewithoutthewritten
permissionofCambridgeUniversityPress.
Firstpublished2013
PrintedandboundintheUnitedKingdombytheMPGBooksGroup
AcataloguerecordforthispublicationisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary
LibraryofCongressCataloguinginPublicationdata
Turner,ChristyG.
Animalteethandhumantools:ataphonomicodysseyiniceageSiberia/ChristyG.TurnerII,
NicolaiD.Ovodov,OlgaV.Pavlova.
pages cm
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
ISBN978-1-107-03029-9
1. Tools,Prehistoric–Russia(Federation)–Siberia 2. Teeth,Fossil–Russia
(Federation)–Siberia 3. Excavations(Archaeology)–Russia
(Federation)–Siberia 4. Paleontology–Russia(Federation)–Siberia 5. Siberia
(Russia)–Antiquities. I. Ovodov,NicolaiD. II. Pavlova,OlgaV.,TurnerII,ChristyG. III. Title.
GN855.R9T87 2013
9470.01–dc23
2012040134
ISBN978-1-107-03029-9Hardback
CambridgeUniversityPresshasnoresponsibilityforthepersistenceor
accuracyofURLsforexternalorthird-partyinternetwebsitesreferredto
inthispublication,anddoesnotguaranteethatanycontentonsuch
websitesis,orwillremain,accurateorappropriate.
Contents
Acknowledgments pageviii
Noteonphotographidentifications xi
1 Whatisperimortemtaphonomy,andwhystudyitinSiberia? 1
Introduction 1
Animaginarytaleofwinterdeath 11
2 Bonedamageanditsmeaning 26
Taphonomy:theman 26
Afewhistoricalaccountsofperimortemtaphonomy 28
Definitionsof26perimortemtaphonomicvariables 33
Pieceselection 49
Grandtotal 49
Summary 49
3 The30Siberianarchaeologicalandpaleontologicalsites,distributed
fromtheObRivertotheSeaofJapan 52
1 AfontovaGora 54
2 BoismanII 60
3 BolshoiYakorI 69
4 Borabashevskaya 77
5 DenisovaCave 79
6 DvuglaskaCave 90
7 GosudarevLogI 101
8 Kamenka 104
9 KaminnayaCave 120
10 Kara-Bom 133
11 KirkalinskayaCave 140
12 KrasnyYar 143
13 KurlaI 160
14 MalayaSeeya 164
15 Mal’ta 173
vi Contents
16 MalyYalomanCave 184
17 MokhovoMine1 191
18 NizhneudinskayaCave 194
19 OkladnikovCave 199
20 ProskuryakovaCave 221
21 Razboinich’yaCave 229
22 SaralaCave 257
23 Shestakovo 261
24 StraschnayaCave 269
25 Ust-KanCave 279
26 Ust-Kova 303
27 VarvarinaGora 312
28 VolchiyaGriva 328
29 YelenevCave 332
30 ZhemchuzhnayaCave 347
4 Discussion:analyses,comparisons,inferences,andhypotheses 349
Summaryofourdescriptiveperimortemtaphonomicfindings 349
Analyticalfindings 351
Whatisanarchaeologicalsite? 354
Someothercomparisons 356
Damagesignatures 363
Sitedisturbance 366
Reviewofstudiesofmoderncarnivoreswithemphasisonhyenas 367
Modernhyenas 370
Siberianhumansandhyenas 372
Modernattitudesabouthyenas 374
Humanpredationbycarnivores 377
Otherattacksonhumans 378
DidlatePleistoceneSiberianhyenashunthumans? 381
Didhumanseathyenas? 382
Hyenasandarchaeologicalstratigraphy 382
WhowerethelatePleistocenehumansofSiberia? 383
SiberianMousteriansreplaced? 385
WhyaretheresofewlatePleistocenehumanskeletalremainsinSiberia? 386
Extinctionofmegafauna 390
Northernlimitofcavehyenadistribution 391
AhyenabarriertoBeringia? 395
5 Conclusionsforsevenquestions 404
Anothertaleofwinterdeath 406
Contents vii
Appendices 409
1 Tables 409
2 ScientificnamesforSiberianPleistocenespeciesidentifiedinoneormore
ofthe30faunalassemblages 453
3 Listvenka 455
References 460
Index 486
Acknowledgments
ThisprojecteventuallycameaboutaftermeetingSergeyArutyunovin1979atthePacific
Science Conference held in Khabarovsk. It was he who explained to the senior author
howonegoesaboutgettingpermissiontocarryoutresearchinRussia.Financialaidcame
fromtheNationalGeographicSociety(grant#6454-99);theWennerGrenFoundationfor
Anthropological Research (grant #6588); the senior author’s Arizona State University
Regents’Professorshipresearchaccount;theInstituteofArchaeologyandEthnography,
Academgorodok; the Archaeology Laboratory of Krasnoyarsk Pedagogical University,
andASUEmeritusCollegegrant.Personalhelpcamefromthefollowingindividuals:
Irkutsk
German I. Medvedev (Director, Laboratory of Archaeology, Irkutsk State University):
collections access and visits to Mal’ta, other nearby sites and to Lake Baikal and the
Shamenkasite.EkaterinaA.Lipnina:discussionsaboutMal’ta.Y.M.Ineshin:accessto
BolshoiYakorcollection.P.E.Shmygun:informationaboutKurlaI.YuriA.Mochanov
(Department of Archaeology and Human Paleoecology, Academy of Sciences of the
SakhaRepublic,Yakutsk):discussionsandexaminationoftheDiring-Yuryakhcollections
inIrkutsk.
Kiev (Ukraine)
Yuri Kukharchuk (Institute of Archaeology): collections access. Vadim Stepanchak:
collections access. Victor Karchenko (Institute of Archaeology at the Museum of
NaturalScience):reviewofexhibitsandexaminationofhyenaremains.
Krasnoyarsk
Nicolai I. Drozdov (President, Krasnoyarsk Pedagogical University; Director,
Laboratory of Archaeology): trips to the Yenisei River Afontova Gora site, and sites
at Kurtak field camp, collections access, lodging, explanations about the Pleistocene
Kurtak complex. Eugene V. Artemiev: collections access. Nicolai I. Martynovich
