Early Upper Paleolithic Stone Tool Technologies of Northern Mongolia: The Case of Tolbor-4 and Tolbor-15*

Abstract

Based on regularly retouched tools recovered from the Early Upper Paleolithic Tolbor-4 and Tolbor-15 sites in the Khangai Mountains of northern Mongolia, we reconstruct the development of cores from large bidirectional forms for the production of elongated blades to flat unidirectional and orthogonal nuclei. Blanks also became progressively smaller, while the toolkit remained virtually unchanged. Two detectable principal technological trends include the growing proportion of tools made on flakes and the decreasing size of tools. Our analysis of lithics from these two Mongolian sites suggests cultural continuity from the initial to the final stage of the Early Upper Paleolithic.