Institute for the History of Material Culture RAS
Pervobytnaia arkheologiia. Zhurnal mezhdistsiplinarnykh issledovanii
Prehistoric Archaeology. Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies
Pervobytnaia arkheologiia. Zhurnal mezhdistsiplinarnykh issledovanii
Prehistoric Archaeology. Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies

Vasil’ev S. A. Towards the question of the periodization of the Paleolithic. Comments to the Conference ‘The Time of Transitions: The Change of Epochs and Cultures in the Paleolithic’

Download Look on elibrary.ru

Institute for the History of Material Culture RAS, 18 Dvortsovaya emb., St. Petersburg, 191181, Russia [sergevasiimk@gmail.com]

Abstract.  The paper deals with the largest cultural and chronological units of the Old Stone Age. It focuses on the history of formation of the periodization of the Paleolithic Age, the main variants of the subdivision of the Lower, Middle, Upper and Final Paleolithic, and discussions regarding the chronology and significance of these divisions. The identification of the most important culture changes in the development of the Paleolithic became one of the main topics of debates during the international conference
‘Time of Transitions: The Change of Epochs and Cultures in the Paleolithic’ organized by the Paleolithic Department of the Institute
for the Material Culture History, held in St. Petersburg in 2023. 

Keywords: periodization, Oldowan, Acheulian, Middle Paleolithic, Upper Paleolithic, Final Paleolithic.

Received 30.10.2024, accepted 20.11.2024.

DOI: 10.31600/2658-3925-2024-2-5-13

For citation: Vasil’ev S. A. Towards the question of the periodization of the Paleolithic. Comments to the Conference ‘The Time of Transitions: The Change of Epochs and Cultures in the Paleolithic’. Prehistoric Archaeology. Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies. 2024 (2), 5–13 (in Russ.). DOI: 10.31600/2658-3925-2024-2-5-13 

References:

Amirhanov H. A. 2016. Severnyj Kavkaz: nachalo preistorii [Northern Caucasus: The beginning of prehistory]. Mahachkala: «Navraev» Publ. (in Russian). 

Clark J. G. D. 1969. World prehistory: A new outline. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 

Derevyanko A. P. 2019. Tri global’nye migracii cheloveka v Evrazii. T. IV. Ashel’skaya i bifasial’naya industriya v Kitae, Koree, Mongolii, Kazahstane, Turkmenistane, Uzbekistane i na Kavkaze [Three global human migrations in Eurasia. Vol. IV: The Acheulean and bifacial lithic industries in China, Korea, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and in the Caucasus]. Novosibirsk: «IAET SO RAN» Publ. (in Russian and English). 

Groenen M. 1994. Pour une histoire de la préhistoire. Paris: Ed. Jérôme Millon. 

Hommel P. N., Shvenninger Zh.-L., Ineshin E. M., Vetrov V. M. 2017. Testiruemye vremena: ocenka radiouglerodnoj hronologii rannego keramicheskogo proizvodstva na Ust’-Karenge [Verified times: an estimation of the radiocarbon chronology of the early ceramic production at Ust’Karenga]. Izvestiya Laboratorii drevnih tekhnologij 13 (1): 31–46 (in Russian). 

Jaubert J. 1999. Chasseurs et artisans du Moustérien. Paris: La Maison des Roches. 

Key A. J. M., Jarić I., Roberts D. L. 2021. Modelling the end of the Acheulean at global and continental levels suggests widespread persistence into the Middle Palaeolithic. Humanities and social sciences communications 5: 1–12. 

Lewis J. E., Harmand S., Roche H. 2021. Early hominins in East Africa: Territory, mobility and technology. In: Averbouch A., Goutas N., Méry S. (eds.). Nomad lives: from prehistoric times to the present day. Paris: Muséum national d’histoire naturelle, 263–278. 

Lumley H. de (dir.). 2015. Terra Amata. Nice, Alpes-Maritimes, France. T. IV, Fasc 1. Les industries acheuléennes. Paris: Ed. CNRS.

Lumley H. de, Xie Guangmao, Feng Xiao Bo (dirs.). 2020. Les industries lithiques du Paléolithique ancien du Bassin de Bose, Province autonome du Guangxi Zhuang, Chine du Sud. Paris: Ed. CNRS. 

Movius H. L. 1948. The Lower Paleolithic cultures of Southern and Eastern Asia. Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, n. s., vol. XXXVIII, pt. 4. 

Otte M. 2007. Arguments for population movement of anatomically modern humans from Central Asia to Europe. In: Mellars P., Boyle K., Bar-Yosef O., Stringer C. (eds.). Rethinking the human evolution. New behavioural and biological perspectives on the origin and dispersal of modern humans. Cambridge: McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, 359–366. 

Otte M. 2010. La prehistoire de la Chine et de l’Extrême-Orient. Paris: Errance. 

Phillipson D. W. 2005. African prehistory, 3rd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 

Shmidt K. 2011. Oni stroili pervye hramy: Tainstvennoe svyatilishche ohotnikov kamennogo veka: Arheologicheskie otkrytiya v Gyobekli Tepe [They built the first temples. A mysterious sacred place of the Stone Age hunters. Archaeological discoveries at
Goebekli Tepe]. Transl. from German. St. Petersburg: «Aletejya» Publ. (in Russian). 

Smith M. A. 2010. Puritjarra rock shelter: final report on excavations 1986–1990. Canberra: National Museum of Australia Press. 

Vishnyackij L. B. 1993. «Zabeganie vpered» v razvitii paleoliticheskih industrij: yavlenie i ego interpretaciya [The ‘running ahead of time’ in the development of the Paleolithic industries: the phenomenon and its interpretation]. Peterburgskij arheologicheskij
vestnik
4: 7–16 (in Russian). 

Wadley M. 2005. The Howiesons Poort of South Africa: what we know, what we think we know, what we need to know. Southern African Humanities 17: 33–55. 

Yanshina O. V. 2021. Perekhod ot paleolita k neolitu v Kitae [Transition from the Paleolithic to the Neolithic in China]. St. Petersburg: «MAE RAN» Publ. (in Russian). 

Zamyatnin S. N. 1951. O vozniknovenii lokal’nyh razlichij v kul’ture paleoliticheskogo perioda [Concerning the origin of local differentiation in the culture of the Paleolithic period]. Trudy Instituta etnografii AN SSSR, n. s., XVI: 88–152 (in Russian).