Okladnikov Cave
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Okladnikov Cave (russian: пещера Окладникова) is a
paleoanthropological Paleoanthropology or paleo-anthropology is a branch of paleontology and anthropology which seeks to understand the early development of anatomically modern humans, a process known as hominization, through the reconstruction of evolutionary kinship ...
site located in the foothills of the
Altai Mountains The Altai Mountains (), also spelled Altay Mountains, are a mountain range in Central Asia, Central and East Asia, where Russia, China, Mongolia and Kazakhstan converge, and where the rivers Irtysh and Ob River, Ob have their headwaters. The m ...
in
Soloneshensky District Soloneshensky District (russian: Солоне́шенский райо́н) is an administrativeLaw #28-ZS and municipalLaw #83-ZS district (raion), one of the administrative divisions of Altai Krai, fifty-nine in Altai Krai, Russia. It is located ...
, Altai Krai in southern Siberia, Russia. The cave faces south and is located on a
Devonian The Devonian ( ) is a geologic period and system of the Paleozoic era, spanning 60.3 million years from the end of the Silurian, million years ago (Mya), to the beginning of the Carboniferous, Mya. It is named after Devon, England, whe ...
karst escarpment, lying about above the left bank of the Sibiryachikha River valley below; the river itself is a tributary of the
Anuy River The Anuy (russian: река́ Ану́й) is a left tributary of the Ob originating in the Altai mountains of Siberia, Russia. It is long, and has a drainage basin of . The Chyorny Anuy and the smaller Bely Anuy join to form the Anuy. The Chyor ...
. Okladnikov Cave is one of the most extensively studied
Paleolithic The Paleolithic or Palaeolithic (), also called the Old Stone Age (from Greek: παλαιός ''palaios'', "old" and λίθος ''lithos'', "stone"), is a period in human prehistory that is distinguished by the original development of stone too ...
sites in the
Altai-Sayan region The Altai-Sayan region is an area of Inner Asia proximate to the Altai Mountains and the Sayan Mountains, near to where Russia, China, Mongolia and Kazakhstan come together. This region is one of the world centers of temperate plant diversity. Its ...
. A rich Mousterian stone industry, dating to between 33,000 and 44,000 years ago, was discovered, as well as several highly fragmented hominin fossils. Along with a few other Neanderthal sites in the Altai-Sayan region, Okladnikov Cave contains fossil evidence for the most easterly confirmed site with Neanderthal presence.


Background

The cave was originally named after a nearby village, Sibiryachikha, located away. The cave was renamed by Anatoly P. Derevianko in honor of
Alexey Okladnikov Alexey Pavlovich Okladnikov (russian: Алексе́й Па́влович Окла́дников; 1908–1981) was a Soviet archaeologist, historian, and ethnographer, an expert in the ancient cultures of Siberia and the Pacific Basin. He was elect ...
. Okladnikov Cave was first excavated in 1984. The cave is one of several Paleolithic sites located in the Anuy Basin, along with Denisova Cave, Ust-Karakol, Kamminaya Cave, Isrkra Cave, Karama and Anuy I-III. Palynological evidence suggest that, like today, the surrounding area during the time associated with Paleolithic hominin finds was composed primarily of dry forest steppe, albeit in a slightly colder and more humid context.


Description

Situated around north of Denisova Cave, Okladnikov Cave is actually a complex of interconnected cavities: the cave consists of an overhang, an entrance stone bench that is wide, high and deep; and five corridors (galleries). The narrow cave extends into the hill for about . Its entrance faces south at above the river. Just one hundred meters away is an animal cave, dubbed ''Sibiryachikha VI'', in which an as yet unclassified child’s humerus was found in 1985. Researchers suggested that this cave would have served better for human use than the actual Okladnikov Cave, although they found no traces of human occupation.


Archaeology


Stratigraphy

Archaeologists have identified seven archaeological layers at Okladnikov Cave.


Artefacts

Nearly 4000 lithic tools have been recovered from Okladnikov Cave. Mousterian artefacts are found throughout all seven layers. The tool assemblage consisted mostly of scrapers and scraper-knives. Around a quarter of the tools at Okladnikov Cave were made from
jasperoid Jasperoid is a rare, peculiar type of metasomatic alteration and occurs in two main forms; sulfidic jasperoids and hematitic jasperoids. True jasperoids are different from jaspillite, which is a form of metamorphosed chemical sedimentary rock, and f ...
s, while around 5% were made from
hornstone Hornfels is the group name for a set of Metamorphism#Contact .28thermal.29, contact metamorphic rocks that have been baked and hardened by the heat of Intrusion, intrusive igneous masses and have been rendered massive, hard, splintery, and in some ...
s. The lithic industry at Okladnikov Cave shares most similarities with another site in the
Altai-Sayan region The Altai-Sayan region is an area of Inner Asia proximate to the Altai Mountains and the Sayan Mountains, near to where Russia, China, Mongolia and Kazakhstan come together. This region is one of the world centers of temperate plant diversity. Its ...
, Chagyrskaya Cave, and are rather distinct from other Altai sites. However, unlike at Chagyrskaya Cave, Levallois-type tools are uniquely found at Okladnikov Cave. Both sites contain a great number of Neanderthal/Mousterian stone tools. The lithic culture was initially referred to as the ''Altai Mousterian''; nowadays, the culture is more commonly referred to as the ''Sibiryachikha culture'' or the ''Sibiryachikha variant''.


Fauna

Over 6000 animal fossil elements were discovered at the cave, representing at least 20 different species. The remains of marmot, gray wolf, red fox, bear, horse,
cave hyena The cave hyena (''Crocuta crocuta spelaea''), also known as the Ice Age spotted hyena, was a paleosubspecies of spotted hyena which ranged from the Iberian Peninsula to eastern Siberia. It is one of the best known mammals of the Ice Age and is w ...
, woolly rhinoceros, reindeer,
steppe bison The steppe bisonSeveral literatures address the species as ''primeval bison''. or steppe wisent (''Bison'' ''priscus'')
– Y ...
, red deer, Siberian ibex and argali sheep were commonly found inside the cave, with a heavy presence of cave hyena and woolly rhinoceros remains. Some beaver, '' Panthera spelaea'' and red wolf remains were also discovered. The heavy presence of cave hyena remains indicate that the cave was most likely intermittently shared between cave hyenas and hominins.


Diet

Comparative studies on diet show that Neanderthals from the Altai-Sayan region lived in a manner similar to that of late European Neanderthals. Both show signs of being specialized hunters who were likely dependent on the subsistence hunting of large herbivores.


Hominin fossils

168 hominin fossil elements were discovered at the cave, with the majority coming from adults. The hominin remains include five teeth and nine cranial fragments, most likely representing at least four distinct individuals. Archaeologists had long suspected that the fossil hominin remains belonged to Neanderthals; however, some had argued that the remains belonged to humans with mixed ''
Homo erectus ''Homo erectus'' (; meaning "upright man") is an extinct species of archaic human from the Pleistocene, with its earliest occurrence about 2 million years ago. Several human species, such as '' H. heidelbergensis'' and '' H. antecessor' ...
'' traits. Rather fragmented and consequently hard to classify, morphological comparisons with Neanderthals did not produce definitively convincing results. This question was resolved through the successful application of DNA testing to some of the hominin fossil remains.


Samples

Dating information was directly obtained from several hominin fossil elements at Okladnikov Cave (Source:).


Archaeogenetics

In 2007, researchers from the
Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology The Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology (german: Max-Planck-Institut für evolutionäre Anthropologie, shortened to MPI EVA) is a research institute based in Leipzig, Germany, that was founded in 1997. It is part of the Max Plan ...
succeeded in extracting DNA from two fossil hominin fragments from Okladnikov Cave: the humeral diaphysis of a juvenile and a separate femur fragment. mtDNA sequencing confirmed that both fragments most likely belonged the same individual, dubbed ''Okladnikov 2''. The mtDNA sequences of the HVR I (hypervariable region I) from ''Okladnikov 2'' confirmed that the individual was Neanderthal. On the basis of mtDNA analysis, ''Okladnikov 2'' was found to be more related to European and western Asian Neanderthals. A 2014 re-analysis teasing out ancient DNA from contaminated sequences allowed researchers to complete the mtDNA sequence from ''Okladnikov 2''. The completed sequence shows that the ''Okladnikov 2'' mtDNA is basal to that sequenced from ''Mezmaiskaya 1'' from
Mezmaiskaya Cave Mezmaiskaya Cave (russian: Мезмайская пещера) is a prehistoric cave site overlooking the right bank of the Sukhoi Kurdzhips (a tributary of the Kurdzhips River) in the southern Russian Republic of Adygea, located in the northwest ...
and is even closer to western Neanderthals than previously thought.


Implications

DNA extracted from skeletal remains has shown that Altai Neanderthals (closely related to Neanderthals found in western Europe) roamed some 2000 kilometres further east than previously thought. The local habitat was rich in mammalian resources, allowing the Altai Neanderthals to permanently settle in the foothills of the Altai Mountains by at least 300,000 years ago. The Altai Neanderthals appeared to have chosen occupational sites primarily based on their strategic locations close to rivers and within valleys, locations ideal for hunting prey. During the early to middle
Late Pleistocene The Late Pleistocene is an unofficial Age (geology), age in the international geologic timescale in chronostratigraphy, also known as Upper Pleistocene from a Stratigraphy, stratigraphic perspective. It is intended to be the fourth division of ...
, the broader region in general was most likely composed of forest and forest tundra, based on a mix of conifer and some broad-leaved trees. Under these conditions, the Altai-Sayan region provided the early hominin inhabitants with a very appealing environment.


References


Citations


Bibliography

* * * * * * * * * * {{Navbox prehistoric caves 1984 archaeological discoveries Archaeological sites in Siberia Caves of Russia Landforms of Altai Krai Neanderthal sites Prehistoric sites in Russia Mousterian Cultural heritage monuments in Altai Krai Objects of cultural heritage of Russia of federal significance