From Kostenki to Clovis

From the American Side I went to the USSR for the first time in 1982 to attend the 11th meeting of the International Union for Quaternary research (INQUA) held at the Moscow State University. At that time relations between our two countries were anything but congenial and many restrictions were placed on our viewing the archaeological and paleontological collections and labora tory facilities. This was not the ideal climate for the free exchange of ideas needed for meaningful research. However, it was obvious to us that the strained relations did not extend to scientific discussions between scholars. We left that meeting well aware that if the problems of prehistoric Old World-New World relationships were to be resolved, it would eventually require cooperative research efforts within the world community of archaeologists. At that time, the pre-Clovis problem in New World archaeology was foremost in the minds of many North American researchers: tool technology and assemblages were being studied as a possible means of establishing cultural relationships across the Bering Strait, Clovis sites and mammoth kills were being looked at with new ideas for interpretation, and New World researchers realized that to resolve these questions they had to become familiar with the archaeological record of northeast Asia. A chance meeting of the writer with Olga Soffer in 1983 led to serious discussions of the sites on the Russian or East European Plain.

Texte du rabat

This volume is the first to offer Soviet-American comparative research on the Pleistocene hunter-gatherer groups who inhabited North America, Russia, and Ukraine. The similarities and differences in the archaeological records will help archaeologists of all nations to set an agenda for future research.

Contenu
I Introduction.- 1 • Introduction: Fluted Points and Female FigurinesUnderstanding Late Paleolithic People of the New and Old Worlds.- 2 • The Environment and Human Adaptation Systems in Prehistoric Times.- II The Upper Paleolithic Record.- 3 • Radiocarbon Chronology for the Upper Paleolithic Sites on the East European Plain.- 4 • Upper Paleolithic Adaptations in Central and Eastern Europe and Man-Mammoth Interactions.- 5 • The Kostenki-Avdeevo Archaeological Culture and the Willendorf-Pavlov-Kostenki-Avdeevo Cultural Unity.- 6 • Subsistence Practices of Late Paleolithic Groups along the Dnestr River and Its Tributaries.- 7 • Two Examples of Terminal Paleolithic Adaptations.- 8 • Bones for Stones: Considerations of Analogues for Features Found on the Central Russian Plain.- 9 • Amvrosievka: A Unique Upper Paleolithic Site in Eastern Europe.- 10 • Determining Upper Paleolithic Historicocultural Regions: A Case Study.- 11 • Criteria for Estimating the Duration of Occupation at Paleolithic Sites: An Example from Kamennaia Balka II.- 12 • The Technology and Function of Tools in the Context of Regional Adaptations: A Case Study of the Upper Paleolithic and Mesolithic of the Northwestern Black Sea Region.- 13 • Man and Nature in Northeastern Europe in the Middle and Late Pleistocene.- 14 • The Pleistocene-Holocene Boundary: Environmental Processes and Social Adaptations.- III The Paleo-Indian Record.- 15 • The Ones that Will Not Go Away: A Biased View of Pre-Clovis Populations in the New World.- 16 • Clovis-Folsom Geochronology and Climatic Change.- 17 • North American High Plains Paleo-Indian Hunting Strategies and Weaponry Assemblages.- 18 • Paleo-Indian Flaked Stone Technology in the North American High Plains.- 19 • Paleo-IndianArchaeology in the High Plains and Rocky Mountains of Montana.- 20 • Fluted Points in the Eastern Forests.- 21 • Is There a Clovis Adaptation?.- IV Interpreting the Records: Some Caveats.- 22 • The Center at the Edge.