Abstract
Four
principal goals were achieved during the 1997 field season of the Joint
Mongolian-Russian-American Archaeological Expedition in the Gobi Desert: (1) continued excavations in Tsagaan Agui
Cave, ongoing since 1995, (2) expanded excavations in Chikhen Agui Cave, tested
briefly in 1995 and 1996, (3) discovery and initial sampling of unstratified
surface artifact scatters associated with flint sources near Chikhen Agui, and
(4) survey of previously unexplored areas of southern Bayan Hongor aimag (province) in close proximity to
the Chinese frontier. A
multidisciplinary approach to the investigation of Mongolia’s earliest
prehistory, including the application of the latest available remote sensing
technology, has yielded a range of archaeological, paleoecological,
paleogeographic, and geological data that collectively describe a complex,
changing pattern of prehistoric human occupation of the Gobi. Available radiocarbon dates for Tsagaan Agui
define a sequence of Paleolithic materials extending back to ca. 33,000 BP,
while paleomagnetic determinations from strata near the bottom of the cave
sequence reveal reversed (presumably Matuyama [R] chron) sediments. Preliminary 14C dates for Chikhen
Agui indicate at least one period of occupation between ca. 8,000-11,000 years
ago, although other, as yet undated, archaeological materials from the
rockshelter appear typologically and stratigraphically much older. The surface aggregates discovered near
Chikhen Agui derive from an intensively utilized source of high quality flint
and provide an excellent basis for comparison with the rich prehistoric
quarry-workshops on the south face of the Arts Bogd Uul range investigated by
JMRAAE in 1995 and 1996. The
expedition’s reconnaissance of the Ekhiin Gol and Tsagaan Bogd Uul regions of
southern Bayan Hongor aimag,
facilitated by the use of ground-penetrating Shuttle Imaging Radar, yielded
scattered surface traces of prehistoric occupation that warrant further
investigation.
Introduction
From June through August
1997 the Joint Mongolian-Russian-American Archaeological Expedition (JMRAAE)
continued a program of Paleolithic field research initiated in 1995. The preliminary results of the 1995 expedition,
including a brief history of the multinational project, have been published as
a trilingual monograph (Derevianko, Olsen, and Tseveendorj 1996). A similar publication presenting principal
results of the 1996 expedition (Derevianko, Olsen, and Tseveendorj in press) is
expected to be released in spring, 1998.
Four
principal goals were achieved this summer:
(1) continued excavations in Tsagaan Agui Cave, ongoing since 1995, (2)
expanded excavations in Chikhen Agui Cave, tested briefly in 1995 and 1996, (3)
discovery and initial sampling of unstratified surface artifact scatters
associated with flint sources near Chikhen Agui, and (4) survey of previously
unexplored areas of southernmost Bayan Hongor aimag (province) in close proximity to the Chinese frontier.
A
total of seven American, 11 Russian and 11 Mongolian participants (including
eight Mongolian university students) took part in the 1997 expedition. This combination of personnel allowed this
year’s expedition to conduct simultaneous excavations at two localities and
undertake an extensive reconnaissance of prospective new areas in the south
Gobi Desert.
Continued Excavations in
Tsagaan Agui Cave
The expedition’s priority in
1997 was to reestablish a base camp and continue excavations in Tsagaan Agui
Cave (N 44°42’32.6”, E 101°10’08.8”) in the eastern Gobi Altai range of Bayan
Hongor aimag.
The
dolomitic limestone solution cavity called Tsagaan Agui (White Cave) consists
of a narrow, inclining entryway, a lower grotto, a rotunda-like main chamber,
and at least two smaller chambers behind the main rotunda. These innermost chambers were not
systematically investigated during the 1995 field season but constituted one
important focus of the team’s activities at Tsagaan Agui in both 1996 and 1997.
In
1988 and 1989, joint Soviet-Mongolian expeditions excavated a 16 x 2 to 6 meter
trench spanning the drip line along the south margin of the cave’s inclined
entryway (Derevianko and Petrin 1995).
In 1995 we cut back the north profile of that trench an additional 50 cm
and extended it two meters east into the cave’s main chamber. In 1996, we expanded the sounding in the
main rotunda to the east and west to determine the maximum depth of the
culture-bearing deposits and resolve the degree to which post-occupational
roof-fall has affected the underlying sediments. In 1997, JMRAAE’s focus of activity in Tsagaan Agui was to link
the original Soviet-Mongolian soundings of 1988-1989 and our own excavations of
1995-1996 to yield a continuous longitudinal profile of the cave’s main chamber
down to the bedrock floor of the solution cavity. Bedrock and large blocks of dolomite debris occur at depths of as
much as four meters below the present surface of the cave interior. The open chimney in the roof of the main
rotunda and the presence of sporadically active streams within the cave complex
itself have allowed erosional events profoundly influencing the composition and
distribution of the cave’s sediments.
The cave’s “lower grotto”
was tested in 1995, yielding a small collection of stone tools typologically
earlier than those recovered from strata within the cave’s main chamber. Based on this suggestive evidence, more
extensive excavations were conducted in the lower grotto in 1997, yielding many
hundreds of artifacts. Interpretation
of this assemblage is problematical at the moment since some preliminary
sediment analyses suggest that the lower grotto may contain materials
redeposited from elsewhere in the Tsagaan Agui complex. We do not expect to resolve this issue until
these analyses are complete and excavations in the lower grotto can be expanded
during the 1998 and 1999 field seasons.
More
than 1800 stone artifacts were recovered in the Tsagaan Agui excavations in
1995 and 1996. This year, an additional
thousand artifacts were recovered in addition to, perhaps, twice that many
pieces of débitage (manufacturing
waste) and unused flakes. While all artifacts were preliminarily
classified in the field, at this writing only a small fraction have been
thoroughly analyzed. Preliminary data
from the 1997 excavations at Tsagaan Agui reinforce several general conclusions
drawn from analyses of archaeological materials from the two previous field
seasons: (1) stone raw material appears
exclusively local (obtained within just a few hundred meters of the cave
entrance), consisting mostly of jaspers and other cryptocrystalline quartz, (2)
a stratified cultural sequence representing the late prehistoric/early Bronze
Age through Middle Paleolithic has been identified, (3) tools recovered from
the deepest strata consist mostly of flake scrapers and comprise only a small
portion (approximately 4%) of the lithic collection from these horizons, (4)
flakes were derived from both prepared platform “Levallois” (sensu Okladnikov 1986 and Alekseev 1990)
and polyhedral cores with primary reduction having taken place outside of the
cave, principally at the source of the raw material. The limestone massif containing Tsagaan Agui Cave is littered
with the waste products of lithic reduction.
Jasper cobbles and boulders outcrop just above the cave entrance and
many are surrounded by large primary flakes and smaller chips indicating in
situ reduction. Detailed contour and
scatter density mapping of this workshop was completed in 1996 and ongoing
analysis of these data is proving instructive as regards the origins of raw
materials encountered in the Tsagaan Agui stone industry.
The large and diverse faunal
sample recovered in the Tsagaan Agui excavations is currently undergoing
analysis. A wide range of mammalian and
avian species has been identified thus far, many with important paleoecological
implications (e.g., bison, gazelle, horse, and ostrich). In 1997, additional organic samples were
collected from Ochotona (pika) and Alticola (vole) nests in the vicinity of
the cave since chronometric determinations performed on the 1996 samples
yielded ages of no more than 1,300 ± 140 BP (GX-22673). University of Arizona doctoral candidate,
Jason Rech, is currently analyzing these and other rodent middens from JMRAAE
excavations at Chikhen Agui Cave (see below) to provide a line of
paleoecological inference supplementing faunal, palynological, sedimentological
and similar data.
A series of absolute dates
is now available for Tsagaan Agui, and more are expected before the end of the
year based on additional samples collected in 1997. Stratum 3 in the cave’s main chamber has yielded an Accelerator
Mass Spectrometer radiocarbon (14C) date on wood charcoal of 33,840 ± 640 BP (AA-23158) and Stratum 4 is dated at
32,960 ± 670 BP (AA-23159), also on
wood charcoal. An infinite radiocarbon
date (>42,000 bp, MGU-1449) was obtained on a wood charcoal sample from
Stratum 5, about mid-way down the stratigraphic section of the cave’s ramped
entryway. A paleomagnetic determination
indicating reversed sediments (e.g., older than ca. 730,000 years ago) is
associated with the bottom of this same sedimentary column. Paleomagnetic samples were collected from
the cave’s lower grotto this year in an attempt to help resolve the
depositional history of that accumulation.
Tsagaan Agui’s principal
inner chamber was tested in 1996 and additional excavations were carried out
this year. Wood charcoal collected in
contact with and beneath a stone slab feature of indeterminate function (altar?)
yielded a date of 3,820 ± 55 BP (2δ
calibrated to 2460-2049 BC; AA-23159), suggesting late Neolithic or early
Bronze Age use of the cave’s deep interior.
Expanded Excavations in Chikhen Agui Cave
An
important rockshelter called Chikhen Agui, located in Bayan Öndör suum ca. 150 km west of Tsagaan Agui (N
44°46’22.6”, E 99°04’06.4”), was discovered in 1995 and preliminarily tested in
1996. In 1997, more extensive
excavations were undertaken, producing a stratified sequence of cultural
materials in the rockshelter itself and in association with a nearby active
spring vent. Ranging from aceramic
microlithic materials at the top of the sequence to prepared core flake-based
assemblages resembling early Upper Pleistocene sites in Siberia such as
Denisova Cave, Kokorevo, and Kara Bom (Goebel and Aksenov 1995), the Chikhen
Agui collections may contain technological evidence of the Middle-Upper
Paleolithic transition associated with the emergence of anatomically modern Homo sapiens, perhaps as much as 100,000
years ago (Aitkin et al. 1993; Klein
1995; Nitecki and Nitecki 1994).
Five 14C dates
recently generated by the Russian Academy of Sciences, all on wood charcoal
samples taken from hearths, suggest a range of ca. 8,000 to 11,000 years ago
for the microlithic component of the assemblage:
(SOAN-3572) Quadrant Г/5,
Horizon 1, Hearth 4 8,055
± 155
(SOAN-3573) Quadrant Г/8,
Horizon 2, Hearth 5 8,600
± 135
(SOAN-3569) Quadrant Г/6,
Horizon 2, Hearth 6 8,940
± 100
(SOAN-3570) Quadrant Г/6,
Horizon 3, Hearth 10 11,110
± 60
(SOAN-3571) Quadrant Г/6,
Horizon 3, Hearth 10 11,160
± 160
These dates provide a basis
for preliminary interpretation of the prehistoric materials excavated in
Chikhen Agui, and two interim conclusions can be reached:
1.
The
microlithic industry recovered in the three upper horizons may be broadly
defined as “Mesolithic” (i.e., terminal Pleistocene/early Holocene aceramic
microlithic).
2.
The
large blade complex recovered from Cultural Horizon 4 in Stratum 3 might be
best considered transitional—perhaps Middle-Upper Paleolithic.
Forty organic samples
(mostly rodent midden fractions and wood charcoal from hearths) were extracted
in 1997; approximately a dozen are currently undergoing 14C analysis
at the University of Arizona and the Russian Academy of Sciences.
Discovery and Investigation of a New Open-Air
Paleolithic Locality in Bayan Öndör Suum
During planned
reconnaissance of the low mountain ranges in the vicinity of Chikhen Agui,
JMRAAE members discovered an extensive piedmont surface at approximately N 44°44’15.2”, E 99°11’11.6” upon which a lag
deposit of chipped stone tools and waste products is distributed over an area
of at least 1.5 x 4 kilometers. This
locality, called Suuzh (Pelvis) after the local name of the nearest ridge,
appears to be a spot where prehistoric peoples exploited a source of
high-quality flint over a very long period.
These surface occurrences will provide an excellent basis for comparison
with the rich prehistoric quarry-workshops on the south face of the Arts Bogd
Uul range investigated by JMRAAE in 1995 and 1996.
Results of Archaeological Reconnaissance
During the 1997 field season
a nine-day reconnaissance was undertaken of potential archaeological localities
in southernmost Bayan Hongor aimag, in
close proximity to the Mongolian-Chinese border; one of the most remote regions
in Mongolia today.
Research scientist, Derrold
W. Holcomb of Atlanta-based ERDAS Incorporated, accompanied the expedition this
year. Using ERDAS’s state-of-the-art
facilities, Holcomb prepared a series of high-resolution radar images of the
1997 reconnaissance territory from data generated by the SIR-C imaging system
aboard NASA’s Space Shuttle. These
images permitted expedition members to navigate precisely with the aid of
global positioning systems in an area previously unexplored by earlier
Soviet-Mongolian expeditions. The SIR-C
images display both surface and sub-surface features to a spatial resolution of
approximately 20 meters, allowing discrimination of principal geological
structures, including major extinct drainages.
This technology has proven invaluable in the identification of specific
areas of archaeological potential in environments that have been greatly
altered since the period of prehistoric human occupation. JMRAAE’s 1997 reconnaissance of southern
Bayan Hongor aimag focused on the
Ekhiin Gol valley and the Tsagaan Bogd Uul range. Throughout this extensive, currently depopulated, territory the
SIR-C images revealed buried stream channels that, upon ground examination,
yielded surface traces of prehistoric human occupation, including early
Paleolithic stone tools. In 1997,
JMRAAE only tested the potential of this technology for our investigation of
the Gobi. In 1998 and 1999, we plan to
expand the use of such remote sensing imagery in the reconnaissance aspect of
our work.
Conclusions & Prospects
The
bulk of this summer’s archaeological and other collections have been
transported to Novosibirsk, Russia and Tucson, Arizona where better facilities
than those currently available in Mongolia will allow artifacts and other
samples to be thoroughly analyzed before our next field season in 1998.
The joint expedition’s goals
for 1998 include continued excavation of Tsagaan Agui’s main and inner
chambers, more extensive excavation of Chikhen Agui rockshelter, perhaps to
completion, and additional investigation of the open-air localities discovered
in Bayan Öndör suum this year. Results of dating and other analyses
currently underway will refine these general goals in the context of strategic
planning for JMRAAE’s 1999 expedition as well as forming the basis for the
extension of our current trilateral research agreement (1995-1999) for an
additional five years to begin in 2000.
References Cited
Aitkin, M. J., C. B. Stringer, and P. A. Mellars
(editors). 1993. The
Origin of Modern Humans and the Impact of Chronometric Dating. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Alekseev, V. P. (editor). 1990. Paleolit i Neolit Mongolskogo Altaiya. Novosibirsk: “Nauka”.
Derevianko, A. P., J. W. Olsen, and D. Tseveendorj
(editors). 1996. Archaeological
Studies Carried Out by the Joint Russian-Mongolian-American Expedition in 1995. Novosibirsk: Izdatelstvo, Russian Academy of Sciences, Siberian Branch,
Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography.
Derevianko, A. P., J. W. Olsen, and D. Tseveendorj
(editors). In press. Archaeological
Studies Carried Out by the Joint Russian-Mongolian-American Expedition in 1996. Novosibirsk: Izdatelstvo, Russian Academy of Sciences, Siberian Branch, Institute
of Archaeology and Ethnography.
Derevianko, A. P. and V. T. Petrin. 1995.
Issledovaniya Peshchernogo
Kompleksa Tsagan-Agui na Yuzhnom Fas Gobiskogo Altaiya v Mongolii. Novosibirsk: Izdatelstvo, Russian Academy of Sciences, Siberian Branch, Institute
of Archaeology and Ethnography.
Goebel, T. and M. Aksenov. 1995. Accelerator
radiocarbon dating of the initial Upper Paleolithic in southeast Siberia. Antiquity
69:349-357.
Klein, R. G.
1995. Anatomy, behavior, and
modern human origins. Journal of World Prehistory
9(2):167-198.
Nitecki, M. H. and D. V. Nitecki (editors). 1994.
Origins of Anatomically Modern
Humans. New York and London: Plenum Press.
Okladnikov, A. P.
1986. Paleolit Mongolii.
Novosibirsk: “Nauka”.
