Lower Paleolithic Workshop Site of Kusimovo-8 (Southern Transurals)

Introduction. Comprehensive and efficient investigations of the earliest peopling of the Southern Urals became possible after the discovery of Mysovaya site in Abzelilovsky District of Bashkortostan (Russia). The Paleolithic materials from this site were considered mixed — Acheulean/Mousterian — or Mousterian proper. In recent years, the Lower and Middle Paleolithic site of Kusimovo-8 has been discovered nearby. This is a scattered workshop site on pebble flint outcrops within the terrace surface of the Bannoe-Sabakty paleolake. Goals. The study attempts an insight into the earliest peopling of the Southern Urals, describes and analyzes the Lower Paleolithic collection. Results. The finds were identified on the basis of technical and typological characteristics and preservation parameters. The collection comprises a total of 121 items, most of the objects made of flint pebbles and only two bifaces made of diabase. Nucleuses with patinated surfaces (19 items) are diverse enough: mainly flat cores of parallel and sub-parallel shearing are available to be quantitatively followed by radial, fan-shaped, and orthogonal cores. The tools are represented by oval and almond-shaped hand axes, cleavers, piked tools, a chopper, biface blanks, and various side-scrapers. The stratigraphy of test pits shows the presence of two cultural horizons: flint chips were found under the Middle Paleolithic cultural layer (grayish-brown loam with dolomite gravel) — 0.5 m lower in yellowish-brown loam. Paleoecological analyses of the pits attest to that yellowish-brown loam deposits can be dated to the Middle Pleistocene. Similar conditions were identified for Lower Paleolithic finds discovered at Mysovaya site. Similarity of both the sites makes it possible to conclude as to comparable ages of these collections and that they may cluster together within one Karyshkino-type industry which unites a majority of Lower Paleolithic sites across the Southern Transurals, all of them to form a specific variant of the Tayacian.

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