A Paleolithic Cache at Tolbor (Northern Mongolia)*

This study presents analyses of a unique assemblage of lithic artifacts, 57 large flakes, discovered in the Ikh Tulberiin Gol River valley of Northern Mongolia. The assemblage represents the first Paleolithic cache ever discovered in Mongolia and is an isolated find, not directly associated with a habitation or logistic activity site. Results of use-wear analysis suggest most of the flakes were unused, with only a few minimally used for processing wood. GIS analyses of the local landscape indicate that the placement of the artifacts was likely symbolic, rather than utilitarian or for storage, lying in an east-west linear viewshed of the primary mountain pass to an adjacent river basin. Based on the context of the discovery as an isolated find and technical-typological features of the artifacts, the assemblage is interpreted as a cache of tool blanks that was purposefully and symbolically positioned on the landscape relative to the primary mountain pass by Upper Paleolithic hunter-gatherers.     

Sacred landscapes of the southern Brazilian highlands: Understanding southern proto-Jê mound and enclosure complexes

Fieldwork involving survey, detailed topographic mapping, and excavations in Pinhal da Serra, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, has revealed a highly-structured landscape revolving around funerary/ceremonial structures that began around A.D. 1000. This paper focuses on the results of detailed topographic survey of mound and enclosure complexes and their interpretation in light of southern Jê ethnohistorical and ethnographic data. We compare the architectural patterns of mortuary architecture from this study with fundamental spatial features of historic Kaingang’s social organisation, mortuary rituals and cosmogony myth. Our results suggest historical continuity in the organisation of space in cardinal directions (E–W), topography (low and high places), and in circular/concentric spatiality revealed in the southern proto-Jê mound and enclosure complexes. It is argued that small paired mound and enclosure complexes are associated with the material representation of a dual ranked opposition materialised in proto-Jê moiety cemeteries where important persona were buried.