Excavation at an Early Upper Paleolithic site of the Tarvagataiin Am, Northern Mongolia

Summary

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

While early modern human dispersals occurred in Northern Eurasia around ~45–40ka ago, a cultural phenomenon often labeled as the Initial Upper Paleolithic (IUP) is identified in Central and Eastern Europe, but also in West, Central, and Northeast Asia. Despite significant progress in our understanding of the timing and routes of these population movements, the processes leading to the instalment of modern human populations in Northern Eurasia remain unclear. Following the IUP, around 40–33ka, archaeological assemblages broadly referred to as early Upper Paleolithic (EUP) show an increase in the number of regional variants probably reflecting a higher cultural diversity. Here we report the recent excavation of Tarvagataiin Am site in northern Mongolia. The site is situated in a terrace along the Khudel River, which is one of the tributaries of the Selenge River valley system. Artifacts are found from an alluvial sedimentary context of bedded fine sand and sandy-silt, 145 cm below the ground surface. The low energy deposition of the site matrix accumulated in an alluvial context, thereby suggesting that the site has a high potential both for precise geochronological control and for a good preservation of human activities.

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): 40117.0