Chronology and Faunal Remains of the Khayrgas Cave (Eastern Siberia, Russia)

• Published in: Radiocarbon
• Main Authors: Kuzmin, Yaroslav V, Kosintsev, Pavel A, Stepanov, Aleksandr D, Boeskorov, Gennady G, Cruz, Richard J
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge University Press (CUP) 2016
• Subjects: General Earth and Planetary Sciences; Archeology; Yakutia; Siberia
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/rdc.2016.39; https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0033822216000394

Abstract The Khayrgas Cave in Yakutia (eastern Siberia) is one of the most important Upper Paleolithic sites in northern Asia, and has been the subject of extensive 14 C dating and study of mammal bones. The upper part of the cave sequence (Layers 2–4) dates to the Holocene (~4100–8200 BP), and the lower part (Layers 5–7) to the Late Pleistocene (~13,100–21,500 BP). In Layers 2–4, only extant animal species are known; ecologically they belong to a forest-type ecosystem. In Layers 5–7, several extinct species were identified, and the environment at that time corresponded to open and semi-open ecosystems. The Khayrgas Cave provides rare but reliable evidence of human occupation in the deep continental region of eastern Siberia at the Last Glacial Maximum, ~20,700–21,500 BP.