Introduction
The Altai range is located at the cross-roads between Central and Northeast Asia, between 49–52° N latitude and 32–88° E longitude. The Altai plain borders it in the north and the Ob River Basin opens to the west on the Siberian plain. On the northwest border stand the Salair and the Alatau ranges and in the southwest, the western Sayan range. In the south, the Mongolian Altai runs east to the Gobi Desert and joins the Kazakh steppe to the west. In the southwest, the Altai is separated from the Central Tian Shan by the plains of the eastern Balkash, by the Tarbaghatay range, and by the surrounding Zaisan. The plains reach the Xinjang and the Taklamakan desert via the Turpan-Ami depression and southern and Inner-Mongolia via the western edge of the Gobi desert.
The Altai Mountains are the result of a complex and contrasted history. Several periods of complete flattening (e.g., Early Mesozoic, Late Paleozoic) of the landscape have been recorded and the current setting was...
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsReferences
Baryshnikov, G.F. & A. Maloletko. 1997. Arkheologicheskye pamiatniki Altaya glazami geolog. [Archeological sites through the eyes of a geologist 9, Volume 1: Ulalinka, Ust’-Karakol, Anuy 1, Dmitrievka, Tystesken: Tomsk University Press.
Chlachula, J. 2001. Pleistocene climate change, natural environments and palaeolithic occupation of the Altai area, west-central Siberia. Quaternary International 80: 131-67.
Derevianko, A.P. 2011. The Upper Paleolithic in Africa and Eurasia and the origin of anatomically modern humans. Novosibirsk.
Derevianko, A. & A. Postnov. 2004. The Mousterian of Gorny Altai. Actes Du XIV Congres UISPP, 2-8 Septembre 2001 (BAR 1239 International series): 105–16.
Derevianko, A. & M. Shunkov. 2009. Development of early human culture in northern Asia. Paleontological Journal 43: 881–89.
Derevianko, A.P. & S.V. Markin. 2011. Sibiryachikhinsky version sites o the Altai Middle Paleolithic industries, in A.P. Derevianko & M.V. Shunkov (ed.) Proceedings of the international symposium ‘Characteristic features of the Middle to Upper Paleolithic transition in Eurasia: development of culture and evolution of homo genus’: 40-50. Novosibirsk.
Derevianko, A.P., M. V. Shunkov, A. K. Agadjanian, G. F. Baryshnikov, E. M. Malaeva, V. A. Ulianov, N. A. Kulik, A. V. Postnov & A.A. Anoikin. 2003.Paleoenvironment and paleolithic human occupation of Gorny Altai. Subsistence and adaptation in the vicinity of Denisova Cave. Russian Academy of Sciences.
Krause, J., L. Orlando, D. Serre, B. Viola, K. Prüfer, M. P. Richards, J.–J. J. Hublin, C. Hanni, A. P. Derevianko & S. Paabo. 2007. Neanderthals in central Asia and Siberia. Nature 449: 902-4.
Krause, J., Q. Fu, J. M. Good, B. Viola, M. V. Shunkov, A. P. Derevianko & S. Paabo. 2010. The complete mitochondrial DNA genome of an unknown hominin from southern Siberia. Nature 464: 894-97.
Reich, D., R. E. Green, M. Kircher, J. Krause, N. Patterson, E.Y. Durand, B. Viola, A.W. Briggs, U. Stenzel, P.L.F Johnson et al. 2010. Genetic history of an archaic hominin group from Denisova Cave in Siberia. Nature 468: 1053-60.
Reich, D., N. Patterson, M. Kircher, F. Delfin, M.R. Nandineni, I. Pugach, A.M.S. Ko, Y.C. Ko, T. A. Jinam, M E. Phipps et al. 2011. Denisova admixture and the first modern human dispersals into southeast Asia and Oceania. The American Journal of Human Genetics 89(4): 516-28.
Shahgedanova, M. 2003. The physical geography of northern Eurasia. Oxford University Press.
Shunkov, M.V., 2005. The characteristics of the Altai (Russia) Middle Paleolithic in regional context. Bulletin of the Indo-Pacific Prehistory Association 25 (Taipei Papers Vol. 3): 69-77.
Viola, B., S. V. Markin, A.N. Zenin, M.V. Shunkov & A.P. Derevianko. 2011. Late Pleistocene hominins from the Altai mountains, in A.P. Derevianko & M.V. Shunkov (ed.) Proceedings of the international symposium ’Characteristic features of the Middle to Upper Paleolithic transition in Eurasia: development of culture and evolution of homo genus: 207-13. Novosibirsk.
Wrinn, P.J. 2010. Middle Paleolithic settlement and land use in the Altai mountains, Siberia, in N.J. Conard & A. Delagnes (ed.) Settlement dynamics of the Middle Paleolithic and the Middle Stone Age, Volume III: 163-94. Tübingen.
Zwyns, N. 2012. Laminar technology and the onset of the Upper Paleolithic in the Altai, Siberia (Studies in Human Evolution). Leiden: Leiden University Press.
Zwyns, N., E.P. Rybin, J.-J. Hublin & A.P. Derevianko. 2012. Burin-core technology & laminar reduction sequence in the initial Upper Paleolithic from Kara-Bom (Gorny-Altai, Siberia). Quaternary International 259: 33-47.
Further Reading
Agadjanian, A. & N. Serdyuk. 2005. The history of mammalian communities and paleogeography of the Altai mountains in the Paleolithic. Paleontological Journal 39 (Suppl 6): 645-821.
Baker, V.R., G. Benito & A.N. Rudoy. 1993. Paleohydrology of late Pleistocene superflooding, Altay mountains, Siberia. Science 259: 348.
Baryshnikov, G.F. & A.M. Maloletko. 1997. Arkheologicheskye pamiatniki Altaya glazami geolog. (Archeological sites through the eyes of a geologist), Volume 1: Ulalinka, Ust’-Karakol, Anuy 1. Dmitrievka, Tystesken: Tomsk University Press.
Brantingham, P.J., A.I. Krivoshapkin, L. Jinzeng & Y. Tserendagva. 2001. The initial Upper Paleolithic in Northeast Asia. Current Anthropology 42: 735-46.
Derevianko, A. & S. Markin. 1992. Mustie Gomogo Altaya (The Mousterian of the mountainous Altai). Novosibirsk.
Derevianko, A.P. & E.P. Rybin. 2003. The earliest representations of symbolic behaviour by Paleolithic humans in the Altai Mountains. Archaeology, Ethnology and Anthropology of Eurasia 4: 27-50.
Derevianko, A. & M. Shunkov. 2002. Middle Paleolithic industries with foliate bifaces in Gorny Altai. Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia 9: 16–42.
- 2004. Formation of the Upper Paleolithic Traditions in the Altai. Archeology, Ethnology and Anthropology of Eurasia 5(3): 12-40.
- 2009. Development of early human culture in northern Asia. Paleontological Journal 43: 881–89.
Derevianko, A.P., I.V. Grichan, M. Dergacheva, A.N. Zenin, S.A. Laukhin, G.M. Levskoskaia, A.M. Maloletko, S.V. Markin, V.I. Molodin, I. Ovodov, V.T. Petrin & M.V. Shunkov. 1990. Arkheologiia i paleoekologiia Paleolita gornogo Altaia (Paleolithic archeology and paleo-ecology of Gorny Altai). Novosibirsk: ANSSSR.
Derevianko, A.P., D.B. Shimkin & W. Roger Powers. (ed.) 1998. The Paleolithic of the Altai, The Paleolithic of Siberia: new discoveries and interpretations. Chicago.
Derevianko, A., A. Agadjanian, G. Baryshnikov, M. Dergacheva, T. Dupal, E. Malaeva, S. Markin, V. Molodin, S. Nikolaev, L. Orlova et al. 1998. Arkheologia, geologia i paleografia pleistotsena i golotsena Gornogo Altaya 8 Archaeology, geology and paleogeography of the Pleistocene and Holocene of the mountainous Altai. Novosibirsk: Izdatelstvo Instituta Arkheologii i Ethnografii Sibirskogo Otdelen.
Derevianko, A., V. T. Petrin & E.P. Rybin. 2000. The Kara-Bom site and the characteristics of the Middle-Upper Paleolithic transition in the Altai. Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia 2(2): 33-52.
Derevianko, A.P., A. V. Postnov, E.P. Rybin, Y.V. Kuzmin & S.G. Keates. 2005. The Pleistocene peopling of Siberia: a review of environmental and behavioral aspects. Bulletin of the Indo-Pacific Prehistory Association 57: 69-77.
Goebel, T. 2004. The early Upper Paleolithic of Siberia, in P.J. Brantingham, S. L. Kuhn & K.W. Kerry. (ed.) The early Upper Paleolithic beyond western Europe: 162–95. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Goebel, T., A.P. Derevianko & V.T. Petrin. 1993. Dating the middle-to-upper-paleolithic transition at Kara-Bom. Current anthropology 34: 452-58.
Kuzmin, Y. 2000. Geoarchaeology of the Lower, Middle, and early Upper Palaeolithic of Siberia: a review of current evidence. The Review of Archaeology 21: 32-40.
Kuzmin, Y.V. 2008. Siberia at the last glacial maximum: environment and archaeology. Journal of Archaeological Research 16: 163-221.
Okladnikov, A. 1972. Ulalinka-drevnepaleoliticheskii pamiatnik Sibiri [Ulalinka, Siberian Lower Paleolithic site]. Materialy i issledovaniia po arkheologii SSSR 185: 7–19, (in Russian).
Okladnikov, A.P. 1961. Comment on “The Ust-kanskaya Paleolithic Cave Site, Siberia”. American Antiquity 27: 203-15.
Okladnikov, A.P. & G.A. Pospelova. 1982. Ulalinka, the oldest Palaeolithic site in Siberia. Current Anthropology 23(6): 710–712.
Otte, M. & J. Kozlowski. 2001. The transition from the Middle to Upper Paleolithic in north Eurasia. Archaeology, Ethnology and Anthropology of Eurasia 3: 51–62.
Postnov, A., A. Anoikin & N. Kulik. 2000. Criteria for the selection of raw materials in Palaeolithic industries of the Anui River basin (Gorny Altai). Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia 1: 18–30.
Rudenko, S.I. 1961. The Ust’-Kanskaia Paleolithic Cave Site, Siberia. American Antiquity 27: 203-15.
Rybin, E. 2004. Middle Paleolithic “blade” industries and the Middle-to-Upper-Paleolithic transition in South Siberia: migration or regional continuity? (BAR International series 1239). Oxford: Archaeopress.
Slavinskiy, V.S. 2007. Industrii Ranneverhinepaleoliticheskii Ourovney Ovitanya Ctoyanki Ust-Karakol 1 [Early Upper Paleolithic industry from the occupation levels at Ust-Karakol 1, in Severnaya Evrasia v Anthropologenie. ChelovekPaleolitechnologii, Geoecologia, Ethnografii i Anthropologii: 197-214, (in Russian).
Slavinskiy, V.S. & E.P. Rybin. 2007. Vosstanovlenies Pomowyou Remontaja Variantov Skalivanya Kamnya v Industriyah Srednego Paleolita i Raneii Pory Vernehgo Paleolita Soyanki Kara-Bom [Reconstruction of the knapping variant through refits of stone flakes of the Middle Paleolithic and Early Upper Paleolithic industry from the Kara-Bom site]. Vestnik NGU 6: 70-80, (in Russian).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2014 Springer Science+Business Media New York
About this entry
Cite this entry
Zwyns, N. (2014). Altai: Paleolithic. In: Smith, C. (eds) Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-0465-2_1904
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-0465-2_1904
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-1-4419-0426-3
Online ISBN: 978-1-4419-0465-2
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and Law