Last interglacial peopling of Siberia: the Middle Palaeolithic site Ust'-Izhul', the upper Yenisei area

Multidisciplinary Quaternary investigations in the Minusinsk Basin in the upper Yenisei River region and other southern Siberian continental depressions have produced evidence of prehistoric peopling pre-dating the last glacial stage (>100 ka BP). Abundant 'pebble tools' and bone artefacts exposed from eroded alluvia of the Yenisei River terraces indicate repeated occupation of this territory since the Middle Pleistocene. A new stage of expansion of the early human occupation habitat occurred around the last interglacial (OIS 5e) by a Middle Palaeolithic (Neanderthaloid?) population characterized by a core and flake stone industry and open-air occupation sites. The key camp/kill-processing site at Ust'-Izhul', dated to c. 125 ka BP and documenting complex behavioural activities, is so far the most complete in situ pre-Late Palaeolithic site found in Siberia. This unique record provides new insights into the timing and the palaeoenvironmental conditions of the Pleistocene colonization of north-central Asia.