Microblade Industries of Northeastern Asia During the Holocene: Case Study of the Ust’-Khaita site in Eastern Siberia

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Microblade industries emerge around 20,000 BP and spread rapidly throughout Northeast Asia and Beringia. However, at the turn of the Pleistocene-Holocene, microblade industries disappear in some areas while persisting in other regions until the late Holocene. The reasons behind the uneven disappearance of microblade industries are not clear, and to understand the reasons of the socio-cultural dynamics it is necessary to study early Holocene microblade industries in detail. The Eastern Siberian site of Ust’-Khaita is highly representative of microblade industry development in the early Holocene. The cultural layers 7, 8, 9, and 9A (dated back to 7,000 - 8,500 BP) contain wedge-shaped, demi-conical microblade cores and osseous slotted tools. The stratigraphy of the site allows us to analyze these cultural layers relative to the boreal climatic optimum. The study of Ust’-Khaita indicates that the technology of microblade production developed dynamically. The characteristic of microblade industries provides the data for studies of other regions such as Japan, where microblade industries disappeared in the early Holocene, and British Columbia, where microblade technology was used until the late Holocene.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 39115.0