Obsidian use at the Ushki Lake complex, Kamchatka Peninsula (Northeastern Siberia): implications for terminal Pleistocene and early Holocene human migrations in Beringia

Long-Distance Obsidian Transport in Prehistoric Northeast Asia

“…The northern part of the region, namely Kamchatka and the Kuril Islands, is not discussed due to size limitation. Relevant research in archaeological obsidian provenance of the northern Russian Far East can be found in recent summaries (Grebennikov et al 2010;Kuzmin et al 2008;Phillips 2010).…”

New dates from Ushki-1, Kamchatka, confirm 13,000calBP age for earliest Paleolithic occupation

“…Layer 6, the upper of the two late-Pleistocene occupations, dated to about 12,600 calendar years before present (cal BP) and contained wedge-shaped microblade cores, microblades, and burins, common artifacts among Beringian sites. Layer 7, the basal occupation, dated to about 17,000 cal BP (Table 1) and contained a unique assemblage of bifacially worked stemmed points and flake tools (Dikov, 1977(Dikov, , 1979 for English-language summaries see Goebel and Slobodin, 1999;Graf and Goebel, 2009;Kuzmin et al, 2008;Slobodin, 2001Slobodin, , 2006. Dikov recognized the obvious importance of the layer 7 industry to the story of the peopling of the Americas, because it contained bifacially worked artifacts dated to about 3e4000 years before the time of Clovis (Dikov, 1978(Dikov, , 1979(Dikov, , 1985.…”

Initial source evaluation of archaeological obsidian from the Kuril Islands of the Russian Far East using portable XRF

“…Due to the incomplete, but ongoing nature of geological obsidian research in Kamchatka by Kuzmin and colleagues (e.g., Kuzmin et al, 2008;, the Kamchatka-1, Kamchatka-2, and Kamchatka-4 groups cannot be assigned to specific geographic locations, though the distribution of artifacts made of obsidian from these groups provides some clues to the source locations (Glascock et al, 2006;Kuzmin et al, 2008). The Kamchatka-1 group is represented by artifacts that are widely scattered across southeastern Kamchatka, and artifacts from the Kamchatka-2 group are found at archaeological sites primarily on the southern part of the peninsula (Glascock et al, 2006).…”

“…The Kamchatka-4 group is represented by artifacts from the southern and eastern parts of Kamchatka. Artifacts from the Kamchatka-5 group have been recovered from central and eastern Kamchatka (Kuzmin et al, 2008) and represent the Payalpan volcano source. Kamchatka-7 obsidian is believed to be from the Ichinsky volcano near the Payalpan River in central Kamchatka (Kuzmin et al, 2008).…”

“…During the past decade, a number of studies have detailed the obsidian sources and prehistoric obsidian use in northeast Asia including Japan, Kamchatka, Sakhalin Island and Primorye (Russian Far East) (Doelman et al, 2008;Glascock et al, 2000Glascock et al, , 2006Kuzmin, 2006a, b;Kuzmin et al, 1999Kuzmin et al, , 2000Kuzmin et al, , 2002Kuzmin et al, , 2008. This previous research has documented networks of obsidian exchange and transport in the region since the Late Paleolithic (ca.…”