The Berelekh Mammoth “Graveyard”: New Chronological and Stratigraphical Data from the 2009 Field Season

Abstract

To clarify unanswered questions of site formation, geology and the archaeology of the Berelekh geoarchaeological complex, a special survey was undertaken in 2009 of the area surrounding the site. Several geological units have been revealed. By establishing the spatial and temporal relationship of these deposits—as well as their age—we have reconstructed the formation history of the Berelekh bone bed. The mammoth bone deposit belongs to a paleochannel. Radiocarbon dating of mammoth remains at Berelekh demonstrates rapid accumulation during the Bølling warming. Human involvement in its formation is, at best, questionable, since there is no real overlap between the radiocarbon dates associated with past human activity, and those of the mammoth bone bed. This study confirms that humans used mammoth bone remains after the bone bed was deposited. Culturally, the Berelekh “site” does not have any relationship to the so‐called “Dyuktai culture.” Instead, the Berelekh archaeological finds (side notched stone pendants) show certain similarities to non‐microblade terminal Pleistocene assemblages found from Yenisei to Kamchatka. Additionally, the Berelekh complex presents a clear analogy with lithics found in Eastern Beringia. Teardrop‐shaped incomplete bifaces found in the assemblage are comparable to the Chindadn points of Alaska. The nature of this “Chindadn connection” is intriguing but it is the only visible cultural link between Western and Eastern Beringia.

Beringia and the global dispersal of modern humans

“…This industry conceivably represents the descendants of the standstill population spreading out of their postulated refugium in the central lowland after the LGM. New dates from a site near the mouth of the Indigirka River in northwestern Beringia ( Berelekh ) indicate the presence of people making teardrop‐shaped bifacial points (Chindadn points) and stemmed points at 14,900‐13,500 cal BP . As noted earlier, stemmed points are found in younger occupations at Ushki in central Kamchatka (∼13,000 cal BP), while Chindadn points are known from sites of comparable age (∼14,000‐13,300 cal BP) in south‐central Alaska and southwest Yukon …”

“…These initially were found in the Upper Tanana Valley in east‐central Alaska in association with microblades, but later were found in assemblages without microblades in the northern foothills of the Alaska Range . The dating of the oldest site in the Alaska Range is ∼13,500–13,000 cal BP, but a teardrop‐shaped point recently was recovered from northwestern Beringia dating to ∼14,900‐13,500 cal BP . The status of the teardrop‐shaped points and their relationship to the microblade industry has always been controversial, with some archeologists suggesting that the points actually are part of the microblade industry; that is, that they were made by the same people .…”

“…18 The dating of the oldest site in the Alaska Range is 13,500-13,000 cal BP, but a teardrop-shaped point recently was recovered from northwestern Beringia dating to 14,900-13,500 cal BP. 19,20 The status of the teardropshaped points and their relationship to the microblade industry has always been controversial, with some archeologists suggesting that the points actually are part of the microblade industry; that is, that they were made by the same people. 9 In any case, these assemblages do not exhibit any clear parallels with known industries in either Northeast Asia or mid-latitude North America.…”

Comment on “How do you kill 86 mammoths? Taphonomic investigations of mammoth megasites” by Pat Shipman

“…Soffer et al, 2001;Niven, 2006), as has been suggested for P redmostí and Milovice (Musil, 1968;Brug ere and Fontana, 2009). For example, extensive geoarchaeological work has shown that the Berelekh mammoth bone bed, which Shipman has suggested may be an example of 'repeated, non-selective hunting' (page 3), actually consists of a series of natural deposits unrelated to the Berelekh archaeological site, though the human occupants later exploited the raw material as a resource (Pitulko, 2011; see also Pitulko et al, 2014).…”

Geochronology and Geomorphology of the Pioneer Archaeological Site, Upper Snake River Plain, Idaho, USA

“…Alluvial sites are ideal for site preservation, providing valuable data for reconstructing site formation and archaeological context (Wriston, 2003;Hoffecker et al, 2014;Pitulko, Basilyan, & Pavlova, 2014). However, in the Intermountain West alluvial activity is usually marked by abrupt transitions from long-term dry conditions to high-energy flood events that carve out arroyos and erode cultural deposits (Waters, 1991) or form rapidly anastomosing braided systems, jumbling artifacts, as in the deepest layers of the Sunshine locality in Nevada where camel bones were redeposited with Paleoarchaic artifacts within gravelly channel deposits (Huckleberry, 2001;Beck & Jones, 2009).…”