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Denisovans, Neanderthals, and Early Modern Humans: A Review of the Pleistocene Hominin Fossils from the Altai Mountains (Southern Siberia)

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Abstract

This paper reviews significant issues related to the fossil hominins from the Altai Mountains of Siberia (Russia), namely Denisovans, Neanderthals, and early modern humans. Uncritical acceptance of the recovered information by some authors has resulted in unreliable chronologies of the Middle and Upper Paleolithic artifact assemblages and the animal and hominin fossils. We examine the chronostratigraphic contexts and archaeological associations of hominin and animal fossils and the lithics discovered at the Denisova, Okladnikov, Strashnaya, and Chagyrskaya cave sites. Taphonomic, site formation, and geomorphological studies show evidence of disturbance and redeposition caused by carnivore activity and sediment subsidence at these sites, which complicates the dating of the human remains. Our analysis indicates that the Middle Paleolithic is dated to ca. 50,000–130,000 years ago, and the Upper Paleolithic to ca. 12,000–48,000 years ago. The best age estimate for Denisovans is ca. 73,000–130,000 years ago. The ages of Neanderthals can be determined as more than 50,000–59,000 years ago, and of modern humans at roughly 12,000–48,000 years ago. Denisovan and Neanderthal fossils are associated with Middle Paleolithic complexes only.

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Acknowledgments

We are grateful to Evgeny P. Rybin for discussion of the Paleolithic of the Altai, Tatiana Karafet for clarifying issues related to the DNA analysis of Okladnikov Cave, and Aleksander V. Borodin for discussion of small mammal assemblages of western Siberia. The AMS Laboratory of the University of Arizona (Tucson, AZ, USA) dated several samples from the Altai caves, and we thank them for this valuable assistance. We are grateful to João Zilhão and five anonymous reviewers, and to Gary M. Feinman and Linda Nicholas for useful comments and suggestions that allowed us to improve the quality of the initial text. We dedicate this paper to Nikolai D. Ovodov (1939–2017) and to Christy G. Turner II (1933–2013). Ovodov was a Siberian archaeozoologist and biologist, who contributed a plethora of factual data and its interpretation to Siberian Paleolithic zooarchaeology. Turner in 1984 initiated a large-scale project with Ovodov, with the focus on perimortem bone damage at Upper Pleistocene Siberian sites; the main research phase was completed in 1998–2006. This study was conducted on the State Assignment of the Sobolev Institute of Geology and Mineralogy, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, with funding provided by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation.

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  1. Sobolev Institute of Geology and Mineralogy, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Koptyug Ave. 3, Novosibirsk, Russia, 630090

    Yaroslav V. Kuzmin

  2. Tyumen Scientific Center, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Malygin St. 86, Tyumen, Russia, 625026

    Vyacheslav S. Slavinsky & Aleksander A. Tsybankov

  3. Independent Researcher, 40239, Düsseldorf, Germany

    Susan G. Keates

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  1. Yaroslav V. Kuzmin
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  2. Vyacheslav S. Slavinsky
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Kuzmin, Y.V., Slavinsky, V.S., Tsybankov, A.A. et al. Denisovans, Neanderthals, and Early Modern Humans: A Review of the Pleistocene Hominin Fossils from the Altai Mountains (Southern Siberia). J Archaeol Res 30, 321–369 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10814-021-09164-2

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