Human Teeth from Strashnaya Cave, the Altai Mountains, with Reference to the Dental Variation in Stone Age Siberia

Human teeth found in layer 3(1)a of Strashnaya Cave, northwestern Altai Mountains, in 1989, are described. The layer is related to the Upper Paleolithic and has been dated to 19,150 +/- 80 BP. However, owing to the nature of sedimentation in the areas adjacent to the cave's walls, where the teeth were found, these may be either earlier or later. The objective of this study is to examine the possible biological continuity between the Upper Paleolithic and Neolithic populations of the Altai-Sayan highland because the teeth from Strashnaya may postdate their layer. In view of the chronological ambiguity, we compared them with both the Paleolithic and Neolithic specimens from southwestern Siberia. Marked affinities have been demonstrated between the Strashnaya teeth and those from the Upper Paleolithic sites of Malta, Listvenka, and Afontova Gora II in Southern Siberia, suggesting that the Upper Paleolithic population of the Altai Mountains represented the same Southern Siberian dental complex. Certain features link the Strashnaya child with people associated with the Neolithic and Chalcolithic cultures of the Altai-Sayan region, such as the Kuznetsk-Altai and Bolshoy Mys cultures, possibly evidencing evolutionary conservatism.