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Section HUMAN EVOLUTION
Section HUMAN EVOLUTION
UgAGIZLI CAVE II: MIDDLE PALEOLITHIC ASSEMBLAGES
FROM SOUTH-ANATOLIA
Baykara Ismail
Yu%uncu Yil University, Faculty of Letter, Anthropology Department, Van, Turkey
Most scientists agree that modern humans left Africa relatively recently, and it was traditionally thought that the route taken was northwards, overland through the Middle East and beyond. However, there is growing disagreement about the route or routes taken by humans and when they migrated out of Africa. In this article, we will discuss about Middle Paleolithic archaeological evidence from Ugagizli II Cave in order to assess the timing and geographic origins of Upper Pleistocene human colonization. Ugagizli Cave II is a Middle Paleolithic locality situated on the Mediterranean coast of south-central Turkey. Ugagizli II contains higher densities of lithics and bones as well as residues of hearth features, indicating a higher intensity or frequency of human frequentation. The Cave Lithic technology is dominated by Levallois production and hard-hammer percussion used to reduced the cores. All of the layers systematic reducing of the core is considered with mainly unipolar, secondary centripetal Levallois production. Orientation of the production is mainly flakes and scarcely seen blades manufactures. Typological feature is characterized with higher proportion of Levallois flake, Levallois points, Mousterian points, side scrapers types and lower proportion of upper Palaeolithic tool types. Those technological and typological evidence shows the cave is in Levantine Middle Palaeolithic assemblages.
Key words: Ugagizii II Cave, Middle Paleolithic, Anatolia, Hatay
Contact information: Baykara ismail, e-mail: ibaykara@yyu.edu.tr.
CRANIAL VAULT MORPHOLOGY OF EASTERN EUROPEAN AND EASTERN SIBERIAN MESOLITHIC POPULATIONS: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS
Bulygina (Stansfield) Ekaterina, Pezhemsky Denis, Rasskazova Anna
Research Institute and Museum of Anthropology, LLomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia
We carried out a morphometric analysis of cranial vault and upper face in Mesolithic populations of Eastern Europe (Oleniy Ostrov, Zvejnieki, Popovo, Peschanitsa, Vasilievka III, Murzak-Koba, Fatma-Koba). A comparison was made with a newly discovered cranium from Lokomotiv (R-8), Irkutsk, Eastern Siberia. The total number of individuals is 36. Our methods included 3D geometric morphometrics as well as conventional distances. Measurements were taken according to R. Martin. Data were subjected to the principal component analysis. We examined trends of similarity in the neurocranial and upper facial morphology among these individuals. The structure of the upper face is determined by how flat the region immediately below the brow ridges is. Upper facial flatness is usually regarded as a feature differentiating Asian Mongoloids from other populations of the world. However, V. Yakimov (1957, 1960) described the same feature among Upper Palaeolithic and Mesolithic people of Europe. Given that the most ancient individuals from Siberia do not have exceptionally flat upper faces, this characteristic can no longer be regarded as specifically Mongoloid, in keeping with Yakimov's view. Lokomotiv-R-8 cranium was found in 1995. So far this is the earliest complete human skull from Northern Asia, dating to the 7th millennium BC (8690±120 cal. BP, TO-10507). It has very pronounced 'Asian' features in its frontal bone structure. Hence, its comparison with other ancient individuals from Eastern Europe is especially interesting. Results of our multivariate statistical analysis differentiate individuals with
Vestnik Moskovskogo Universiteta. Series 23 ANTHROPOLOGIYA — 3/2014
19th Congress of the European Anthropological Association Lomonosov MSU, Moscow, Russia, 25th - 29th August, 2014
