Shedding New Light on Upper Paleolithic Cultural Landscapes of Northern Mongolia

Summary

Ongoing research on the Pleistocene of northern Mongolia has revealed intriguing patterns in the Upper Paleolithic cultural landscapes of the region. The distribution of sites suggest that maintaining social networks was potentially as significant as subsistence and shelter considerations for these early nomadic hunter-gatherers. In 2017, fifteen new Upper Paleolithic sites were documented in the Ikh Tolboriin Gol (Big Tolbor River, n=45) and Naryn Tolboriin Gol (Narrow Tolbor River, n=9) valleys of the greater Selenge River Basin that feeds Lake Baikal farther north, bringing the total number for the Tolbor locality to 83 sites (including 29 sites from the neighboring Kharganyn, n=17, and Altatyn, n=12, rivers). Site distributions indicate a settlement preference for south- and east-facing slopes, warmth from solar exposure and shelter from cold northern winds, with prominent viewsheds of surrounding terrain for game monitoring, and locations near either mountain passes or confluences with the Selenge River, or secondary and tertiary drainages, for maintaining social networks.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 83rd Annual Meeting, Washington, DC (2018)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 21829