The culmination of more than a decade of fieldwork and related study, this unique book uses analyses of perimortem taphonomy in Ice Age Siberia to propose a new hypothesis for the peopling of the New World. The authors present evidence based on examinations of more than 9000 pieces of human and carnivore bone from 30 late Pleistocene archaeological and palaeontological sites, including cave and open locations, which span more than 2000 miles from the Ob River in the West to the Sea of Japan in the East. The observed bone damage signatures suggest that the conventional prehistory of Siberia needs revision and, in particular, that cave hyenas had a significant influence on the lives of Ice Age Siberians. The findings are supported by more than 250 photographs, which illustrate the bone damage described and provide a valuable insight into the context and landscape of the fieldwork for those unfamiliar with Siberia.

Acknowledgments page viii

Note on photograph identifications xi

1 What is perimortem taphonomy, and why study it in Siberia? 1

Introduction 1

An imaginary tale of winter death 11

2 Bone damage and its meaning 26

Taphonomy: the man 26

A few historical accounts of perimortem taphonomy 28

Definitions of 26 perimortem taphonomic variables 33

Piece selection 49

Grand total 49

Summary 49

3 The 30 Siberian archaeological and paleontological sites, distributed from the Ob River to the Sea of Japan 52

1 Afontova Gora 54

2 Boisman II 60

3 Bolshoi Yakor I 69

4 Borabashevskaya 77

5 Denisova Cave 79

6 Dvuglaska Cave 90

7 Gosudarev Log I 101

8 Kamenka 104

9 Kaminnaya Cave 120

10 Kara-Bom 133

11 Kirkalinskaya Cave 140

12 Krasny Yar 143

13 Kurla I 160

14 Malaya Seeya 164

15 Mal'ta 173

16 Maly Yaloman Cave 184

17 Mokhovo Mine 1 191

18 Nizhneudinskaya Cave 194

19 Okladnikov Cave 199

20 Proskuryakova Cave 221

21 Razboinich'ya Cave 229

22 Sarala Cave 257

23 Shestakovo 261

24 Straschnaya Cave 269

25 Ust-Kan Cave 279

26 Ust-Kova 303

27 Varvarina Gora 312

28 Volchiya Griva 328

29 Yelenev Cave 332

30 Zhemchuzhnaya Cave 347

4 Discussion: analyses, comparisons, inferences, and hypotheses 349

Summary of our descriptive perimortem taphonomic findings 349

Analytical findings 351

What is an archaeological site? 354

Some other comparisons 356

Damage signatures 363

Site disturbance 366

Review of studies of modern carnivores with emphasis on hyenas 367

Modern hyenas 370

Siberian humans and hyenas 372

Modern attitudes about hyenas 374

Human predation by carnivores 377

Other attacks on humans 378

Did late Pleistocene Siberian hyenas hunt humans? 381

Did humans eat hyenas? 382

Hyenas and archaeological stratigraphy 382

Who were the late Pleistocene humans of Siberia? 383

Siberian Mousterians replaced? 385

Why are there so few late Pleistocene human skeletal remains in Siberia? 386

Extinction of megafauna 390

Northern limit of cave hyena distribution 391

A hyena barrier to Beringia? 395

5 Conclusions for seven questions 404

Another tale of winter death 406

Appendices 409

1 Tables 409

2 Scientific names for Siberian Pleistocene species identified in one or more of the 30 faunal assemblages 453

3 Listvenka 455

References 460

Index 486

Christy G. Turner, II is Regents' Professor Emeritus of the School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University. He is internationally recognised for his work on human dentition and, more recently, for his taphonomic studies of cannibalism in the American Southwest. PA\Nicolai D. Ovodov is Chief Research Collaborator at the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, Novosibirsk, Russia. He is well-known in Russia for his important contributions to Siberian palaeontology and palaeoanthropology. PA\Olga V. Pavlova was a translator with the Russian Academy of Sciences for over 30 years in both the Institute of Geology and Geophysics and the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography.

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