Abstract:
"Palaeolithic sites in Russian high latitudes have been considered as
Upper Palaeolithic and thus representing an Arctic expansion of modern
humans. Here we show that at Byzovaya, in the western foothills of the
Polar Urals, the technological structure of the lithic assemblage
makes it directly comparable with Mousterian Middle Palaeolithic
industries that so far have been exclusively attributed to the
Neandertal populations in Europe. Radiocarbon and optical-stimulated
luminescence dates on bones and sand grains indicate that the site was
occupied during a short period around 28,500 carbon-14 years before
the present (about 31,000 to 34,000 calendar years ago), at the time
when only Upper Palaeolithic cultures occupied lower latitudes of
Eurasia. Byzovaya may thus represent a late northern refuge for
Neandertals, about 1000 km north of earlier known Mousterian sites."
Source
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