A.Kh. Khalikov on the Paleolithic of the Middle Volga region (in the light of modern data)

Abstract

The author examines the achievements of A.Kh. Khalikov in the study of the Paleolithic of the Middle Volga region and the search for the origins of the Ural-speaking peoples among the Late Paleolithic population of the Urals and southern Siberia up to the Baikal region. The author summarizes the results of A.Kh. Khalikov's research of the Junga-Kusherga site in the Gornomariysky district and the study of the collection from the excavations of the Postnikov Ovrag Paleolithic site in Samara, carried out by V.V. Gol’msten in the 1920s. A.Kh. Khalikov’s concept about the entry of the Middle Volga region and the Urals into the area of influence of the cultural traditions of Siberia at the end of the Paleolithic era is analyzed from the point of view of modern data on the sites of the Middle and terminal stage of the Late Paleolithic of the Middle and Southern Urals and Southern Siberia. The diversity of experts' opinions on the interaction of the population of Late Paleolithic sites and cultural formations of these regions is briefly considered. The author concludes that, although the scheme of A.Kh. Khalikov to date is not directly confirmed by the facts, which paint a more complex picture, researches in this direction still are continued. The Postnikov Ovrag sites on the Middle Volga and Talitsky in the Urals and nowadays remains to be involved into the working out of controversial issues of the genesis and interaction of cultural formations of the Late and Final Paleolithic of the Volga region, the Urals and the Trans-Urals.

Keywords

• archaeology
• late paleolithic
• middle volga
• the urals
• western siberia
• eastern siberia
• cultural traditions
• origin of the ural-speaking peoples