Paleolithic of Northern, Central, and Eastern Kazakhstan

Although relatively numerous, the known Paleolithic sites of northern, central, and eastern Kazakhstan are poorly studied and very few of them have been described in detail. Since the amount of reliable data from these regions is extremely limited, they will be considered together here, although their environmental and geological histories are quite dissimilar. In the western part of the area, some putative Lower and Upper Paleolithic finds were collected from surface occurrences in the upper reaches of the Emba River  and on the northern shore 102 Vishnyatsky of the Aral Sea. All the artifacts are of quartz sandstone and there are  several handaxes among them. Several tens of sites (mostly surface occurrences) are concentrated in the central part of the area. Tuemainak I contained about 2000 porphyrite artifacts (including leafshaped points) considered to be Mousterian and Upper Paleolithic  Several thousands of quartzite and porphyrite objects the oldest of which are dated to the Lower Paleolithic, come from the Ak-Koshkar site south of Lake Tengiz. The Jaman-Aibat 4 site,  150 km southeast of Djezkazgan, yielded over 800 sandstone objects, including a number of handaxes on flakes and nodules 10-14 cm long. The assemblage has been considered Late Acheulean .  A putative pebble industry (choppers and flakes of quartz sandstone) was reported to have been found at Muzbel I on the right bank of the Sarysu river east of Djezkazgan.

Finally, sites such as Aidarly II (over 500 items of jasper, including discoidal cores and small handaxes) and Perederzhka (over 2000 sandstone objects) have been regarded as Mousterian. Farther to the north and northeast, numerous occurrences of what are believed to be Lower, Middle, and Upper Paleolithic artifacts were found in the upper reaches of the Nura and Ishim rivers (Vishnevka, Batpak, Mizar, etc.) and in the basin of the Irtysh close to Ekibastuz and Pavlodar (Kudaikol, Taskuduk, Angrensor, etc.). The only sources of information about most of these sites are very brief preliminary reports  from which  it is not possible to judge the character or chronological position of the stone industries. However, the presence in many of the assemblages of large  bifacial tools, including true handaxes, is beyond doubt and it seems plausible  that some of them  might date from the Acheulean.  These conclusions apply  equally to the materials collected from sites on the western and northern shores  of Lake Balkhash and north of the lake (Chinglz). These are porphyrite, alevrolite, and flint industries classified as Acheulean, Middle Paleolithic (including MTA), and Upper Paleolithic In the easternmost part of Kazakhstan, which represents  a continuation of the Altai-Sayan mountain area, all the Paleolithic sites are connected to the Upper Irtysh basin. These are both surface occurrences (Kanai, Svinchatka, and Narym) believed to date from the Middle or Upper Paleolithic and sealed open-air (Novonikolskoe and Shulbinka) and cave (Peshera na Buhtarme) sites dating from the Upper Paleolithic They are probably comparable with western and southern Siberian sites of the same age.