Researchers from NSU and the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography SB RAS, who excavated the Strashnaya Cave in the Altai region, Russia, during the 2015 field season, found some anthropological materials (calcius) referring to the period of 35-50 thousand years ago. The materials might unveil some interactions between Neanderthals, modern humans and Denisovans in the Altai Region.
Previously found artefacts of this age were only lithic tools, whose analysis suggested the cave鈥檚 inhabitants. The anthropological remains found are yet to be studied in the laboratory. They can either confirm the existing theories of anthropogenesis or make researchers adjust them. The first results of the archaeological expedition are reported by the Chairperson of the Archaeology and Ethnography Chair at the Humanities Department of NSU, Dr. Andrey Krivoshapkin.
The Strashnaya Cave is located on the left bank of the River Inya, 2.5km to the north of the village Tigirek (the Altai region). The cave is of great interest for paleontologists and archaeologists. Previous excavations revealed some tools as old as the Stone Age together with different objects such as bone items and ceramic materials belonging to the Bronze Age, Iron Age and Middle Ages.
鈥楾his year was lucky for archaeologists,鈥� says the scientist. 鈥榃hile excavating the Pleistocene layers in the Strashnaya Cave, we found some new anthropological materials. The layer dated 35-40 thousand years old contained a fragment of a human鈥檚 nail-bone. A bit lower, we found a fragment of a skull and still lower a fragment of a rib, which could have belonged to a human, but we have to make certain it is so according to the laboratory analysis. The latter findings might be as old as 50 thousand years.鈥�
If the bone materials discovered contain some organics, genetic analysis will allow identifying whose bones they were. In 1989 some anthropological remains were found in the cave (teeth of a modern human), but they were connected with a later stage of the Upper Paleolithic, about 20 thousand years ago.
鈥業deally, we would like to see the upper layer (the nail-bone) connected with a modern human having some genes of the Neanderthals and the Denisovans; beneath it the Neanderthal man as the tools found look like those of the Chagyrskaya Cave industry, which are definitely Neanderthal; and the oldest fragment be of a Denisovan. But it鈥檚 just my fantasy. The results of the genetic research can be surprising. Anyway, they will clarify the issue of interactions between Neanderthals, modern humans and Denisovans in the Altai Region,鈥� said Dr. Andrey Krivoshapkin.
.JPG)
