Tolbaga revisited: Scrutinizing occupation duration and its relationship with the faunal landscape during MIS 3 and MIS 2

A new Upper Paleolithic occupation at the site of Tolbor-21 (Mongolia): Site formation, human behavior and implications for the regional sequence

“…Pit 2) suggests a low frequency and high magnitude of movements. In the context of the depositional (and perhaps occupational) palimpsest, some of the contradictions could be explained by a time-averaging situation (Bailey, 2007;Perreault, 2018;Izuho et al, 2019). Looking forward, a comparative analysis on the details of the lithic assemblage should clarify the possible connection with the IUP and/or the EUP while investigations on the mobility of hunter-gatherers should help understanding a technological shift recorded affecting a large geographical area.…”

“…Given the likelihood of an occupational palimpsest, further analysis may distinguish between artifact groupings resulting from a single activity and those which reflect recurrent or time-stable differentiation of different areas of the site. Unlike the Trans Baikal region (Konstantinov, 1994;Lbova, 2000;Derevianko et al, 2005;Tashak, 2005;Vasiliev and Rybin, 2009;Izuho et al, 2019), the UP in Mongolia so far lacks clear evidence of constructed hearths, storage pits, and stone structures. At T21, AH4 includes potential combustion features and semi-circular stone 'structures'.…”

“…BP and marks a shift in the regional sequence toward blade-based production, and the Early Upper Paleolithic (EUP), which emerges after 40 ka cal BP. Despite some regional variation between western and eastern Eurasia Zwyns, 2014, 2018;Hoffecker et al, 2019;Kuhn, 2019;Hublin et al, 2020;Fewlass et al, 2020), the IUP is consistent enough in Central and East Asia to be associated with Homo sapiens dispersals along a 'Northern Route' as early as 46-45 ka cal BP (Goebel, 2004(Goebel, , 2015Zwyns, 2012;Fu et al, 2014;Madsen et al, 2014;Rybin, 2014;Hublin, 2015;Hoffecker, 2017;Li et al, 2019;Izuho et al, 2019;Kadowaki et al, 2019;. In addition to specific typological markers (Rybin, 2000(Rybin, , 2014, IUP assemblages often show distinctive technological features that stem from a strong emphasis on the production of blades.…”

“…The redeposition of archeological assemblages can leave few clues as to how many people visited the site, how many times and for what purpose (Bertran et al, 2003(Bertran et al, , 2010Jaubert et al, 2004;Dibble et al, 2017b). In Northern Mongolia, time-averaging issues (Izuho et al, 2019) are compounded by the problem of preservation bias (i.e. the decay of organic remains).…”

Shelter in an extreme environment: the Pleistocene occupation of Tsagaan Agui Cave in the Gobi Desert

“…Middle and Upper Palaeolithic human migrations and dispersals throughout Central Asia are usually associated with mid-altitudes and relatively temperate steppe and forest-steppe environments (Izuho et al . 2019; Khatsenovich et al . 2019; Kolobova et al .…”