Featured Archaeological sites
- Berelekh
- Blackwater
- Bluefish Caves
- Broken Mammoth
- Cactus Hill
- Charlie Lake Cave
- Colby Mammoth
- Daisy Cave
- Dry Creek
- Dyuktai Cave
- Kilgii Gwaay
- McCallum Site
- Meadowcroft Rockshelter
- Mesa Site
- Monte Verde
- Namu
- On Your Knees Cave
- Pedra Furada
- Port Eliza Cave
- Richardson Island
- Sunshine Locality
- Topper
- Tule Springs
- Vermilion Lakes
- Walker Road
- Yana
- Murray Springs
- Paisley Cave
Dyuktai Cave
Dyuktai Cave is located in the Aldan River valley in northeast Siberia. The cave is a karst cavity formed in limestone, with a surface area of about 60 m2. It is the type site for the Dyuktai culture, an early northeast Asian culture that is characterized by a blade and core technology.
The Dyuktai Cave site contains evidence of Pleistocene occupation between about 16,000 – 12,000 years BP. The three Pleistocene levels contained 316 implements and fragments of various blade cores, burins, and projectile points. A bone awl-like tool and a hammer made of reindeer antler were also recovered. Faunal remains included mammoth, reindeer, wolf, and other small animals, but evidence of human activity seems to be restricted to the mammoth remains that were found.
Many archaeologists believe that the Dyuktai people successfully colonized areas of Beringia and, eventually, North America.
Further Reading:
Mochanov, Yuri A. and Svetlana A Fedoseeva
1996. Dyuktai Cave. In American Beginnings: The Prehistory and Palaeoecology of Beringia. Edited by Frederick Hadleigh West.
pp164-173. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
