Introduction
During June through August 1996 the Joint
Mongolian-Russian-American Archaeological Expedition (JMRAAE) pursued a course
of Paleolithic field research initiated under the aegis of a trilateral
agreement signed in Ulaanbaatar in 1995.
The preliminary results of last year’s expedition are now available as a
trilingual monograph (Archaeological
Studies Carried Out by the Joint Russian-Mongolian-American Expedition in 1995,
Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk, 1996. 327 pps. ISBN
5-7803-0001-1).
Four principal goals were achieved
this summer: (1) continued excavations
in Tsagaan Agui Cave, (2) additional sampling of unstratified open-air
occurrences in Tsakhiurtyn Hondii (Flint Valley), (3) testing of two new cave
sites in Shine Jinst suum, western
Bayan Hongor aimag, and (4) survey of
previously unexplored areas south of Tsagaan Agui base camp.
A total of six American, 12 Russian
and 11 Mongolian participants (including eight Mongolian students) took part in
the 1996 expedition. This expanded list
of personnel, particularly on the Mongolian side, allowed this year’s
expedition to accomplish far more than was originally anticipated and proved a
great boon in spite of corollary logistical problems of insuring sufficient
food, water, vehicles, and shelter.
Continued
Excavations in Tsagaan Agui Cave
The expedition’s priority was to re-establish a base
camp and initiate excavations in Tsagaan Agui Cave (N 44°42’, E 101°10’) 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 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 focus of the team’s activities at Tsagaan Agui in 1996.
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. 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. This year, we expanded
the sounding in the main rotunda to the east and west in an attempt to
determine the maximum depth of the culture-bearing deposits and resolve the
degree to which post-occupational roof-fall has affected the disposition of
underlying sediments. 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 effecting the composition and
distribution of the cave’s sediments.
The cave’s “lower grotto”, partially excavated in
1995, was untouched this year due to the increasing likelihood, based on
preliminary sedimentary analysis, that the lower grotto contains principally
materials redeposited from elsewhere in the Tsagaan Agui complex.
More than 800 stone artifacts were
recovered in the Tsagaan Agui excavations in 1995. This year, an additional thousand artifacts were recovered in
addition to, perhaps, twice that many pieces of débitage 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 1996 excavations
at Tsagaan Agui reinforce several general conclusions drawn at the end of the
previous field season: (1) raw material
appears exclusively local (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 seem to have been derived from both prepared platform (Levallois-like)
and polyhedral cores with primary reduction having taken place outside of the
cave at the source of the raw material.
The limestone massif containing Tsagaan Agui is littered with the waste
products of lithic reduction. In 1995,
a concentration of jasper and jasper-like cobbles was discovered just above the
cave entrance, many of which are surrounded by large primary flakes and smaller
débitage indicating in situ
reduction. Detailed contour and scatter
density mapping of this workshop was completed this year and analysis of these
data will prove instructive as regards the origins of raw materials encountered
in the Tsagaan Agui stone industry.
The faunal sample recovered from Tsagaan Agui in
1995 and 1996 is currently undergoing analysis by Professors Baryshnikov (large
mammals) and Agadjanian (microfauna) in St. Petersburg. A wide range of mammalian and avian species
has been identified thus far, many with significant paleoecological
implications (e.g., Bison, Gazella,
Equus, Struthio). In 1996, numerous
midden samples were collected from nests of the desert vole, Arvicola cf. A. argentatus in the vicinity of the cave. Analysis of these remains will hopefully
provide an additional line of paleoecological inference.
Two problematical chronometric dates are currently
available for Tsagaan Agui, although more are expected before the end of the
year. An infinite radiocarbon date
(>42,000 bp, MGU-1449) was obtained from Horizon 5, about mid-way down the
stratigraphic section of the cave’s ramped entryway. A paleomagnetic determination indicating reversed (presumably
Matuyama [R] chron) sediments is associated with the bottom of this same
sedimentary column. Clearly, both these
determinations are inconclusive as far as behavioral implications are
concerned. Nine additional 14C
samples are being submitted for AMS analysis this autumn.
Continued
Investigations in Tsakhiurtyn Hondii (Flint Valley)
In 1995, Russian expedition member
A. N. Zenin began doctoral dissertation research on the assemblage of stone
artifacts collected last year from surface palimpsests south of the Arts Bogd
Uul range. This year, a camp was
established in the area again and work carried out for an additional two weeks
to generate a larger sample of artifacts (n = ca. 20,000) at two new surface
loci. Additional geological mapping of
the area was completed and a number of smaller, but presumably chronologically
related, surface concentrations recorded.
Analyses are currently underway to determine the relationship among
these aggregates and lithic industries from buried contexts elsewhere in the
Gobi. A monograph focusing on the Flint
Valley materials is planned for publication in 1997.
Excavations in
Western Bayan Hongor Province
In 1996 two important new cave
localities were investigated in Shine Jinst suum,
western Bayan Hongor aimag, some 200
km west of Tsagaan Agui base camp.
Chikhen Agui (formerly Chikhen Khuver) rockshelter
(N 44°46’22.6”, E 99°04’06.4”), produced a stratified sequence of cultural
materials in the rockshelter itself and in association with nearby spring
vents, one of which is currently active.
Ranging from aceramic microlithic materials at the top of the sequence
to prepared core flake-based assemblages resembling the early Upper Pleistocene
Kara Bom site in Siberia, the Chikhen Agui collections may contain
technological evidence of the Middle-Upper Paleolithic transition. Organic samples from relevant strata were
extracted for 14C determination at the University of Arizona.
Southeast of Shine Jinst suum headquarters, a locality known as Tsagaan Halga Agui (White
Door Cave) was discovered at N 44°24’34.2”, E 99°22’57.8”. Although this rockshelter was found to be
devoid of archaeological remains, the fact that the cave’s stratigraphy
consists of a sequence of frozen loess strata below ca. 60 cm leads us to be
very enthusiastic about its potential as a source of paleoecological data. A sedimentological column was extracted for
detailed analysis in Arizona.
Results of
Reconnaissance Trips
During the 1996 field season a week-long
reconnaissance was undertaken of potential archaeological localities in
southeast Bayan Hongor and northwest Omnogov’ aimags.
In Omnogov’ (South Gobi) aimag, the Gurvan Tes and Sevrei regions were sampled
extensively. Surfaces south of the
Nemegt range in Gurvan Tes suum yielded
low-density scatters of stone artifacts typologically associated with the late
Pleistocene. Active dune fields in this
area also produced later prehistoric materials including coarse sand-tempered
ceramics in association with a jasper-based microlithic industry that suggest
the region was characterized by significantly more abundant surface water
including lacustrine niches in the early Holocene. East of Sevrei, the southern piedmont of the Dzolen Uul range
yielded scattered surface occurrences of stone artifacts representing a long
period of human activity; perhaps extending back as far as the last glacial
maximum. Unfortunately, no caves or
rockshelters were discovered during this trip, although inquiries made of local
residents generated several possible leads to be pursued in future.
Shorter reconnaissance forays included visits to an
active dune field east of Bayan Lig suum
(Bayan Hongor aimag; N 44°34’29.3”, E
100°39’58.6”) where Neolithic materials, including dwelling foundations,
outcrop among playa remnants. The Joint
Expedition also visited the American Museum of Natural History’s camp at Ukhaa
Tolgod (see National Geographic
190(1): 70-89, July 1996) where Cretaceous reptiles and mammals are being
excavated in abundance.
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 Ulaanbaatar will allow artifacts to be thoroughly analyzed before
our next field season in 1997.
Mongolian expedition co-director, D. Tseveendorj will spend October/November,
1996 in Arizona (funding from University of Arizona) working with Olsen on the
analysis of these materials. Russian
co-director, A. P. Derevianko tentatively plans to spend December-January,
1996-1997 in Tucson (funding from Russian Academy of Sciences) outlining an
English-language monograph on the Tsakhiurtyn Hondii localities for submission
to a U.S. publisher in 1997.
Immediate goals for next year include continued
excavation of Tsagaan Agui’s main and inner chambers, further testing of
Chikhen Agui rockshelter, and additional investigation of cave localities in
Shine Jinst suum. Results of chronometric and other analyses
currently underway will refine these general goals in the context of strategic
planning for expeditions to be carried out in 1998 and 1999.
