The Diring Yuryakh
The Diring Yuryakh site was discovered in 1982 by geologists Grinenko, Kamaletdinov, Minyuk and Korolev in the territory of Diring Yuryakh (Yakut ‘deep river’).
An occasion preceded the story of its discovery. In 1982, a geological congress was to be held in Yakutsk. The organizers had to show the participants of the congress the cross-sections of the highest (most ancient) terraces of the Lena River. Having dug a trial pit in sand covering the gravel, geologists discovered human bone remains belonging to a child of 8-9 years of age.
The geologists contacted the Prilenskaya archeological expedition headed by Yury Mochanov and Svetlana Fedoseeva who immidately arrived at the site. As it turned out, the geologists fractionally destroyed a burial of the late Neolithic (Ymyyakhtakh culture, II millennium BC - contemporaries of Ehnaton and Nefertiti). This Neolithic burial (five ones) was completely excavated as a result of the works carried out here.
The archaic-looking implements, comparable in appearance only with the most ancient tools of the Oldowan epoch, began to be found on October 9, 1982, after the final disassembly of the Neolithic layers. Mochanov dated one archaic type of implements as 1.8 million years old, which exceeds the age of other sites in Siberia and is close to the age of the oldest human sites found in the Olduvai Gorge in Africa.
Further research revealed that the layers of the Diring culture were interspersed with layers of the Lena River, which he estimated to be at least 2-3 million years old. It led to the idea that the real age of the Diring culture could be even greater than the age of Oldowan finds, which means that humans could have originated in Siberia earlier than in North Africa believed to be the ancestral home of the Homo habilis. It was the Out of Africa theory that Mochanov began to adhere to.
However, the results of independent age-dating of Diring culture stone implements, which were published in 1997 by American scientists (Michael R. Waters, Steven L. Forman and James M. Pierson), showed that according to thermoluminescent testing, the age of quartzite implements was from 260 thousand to 370 thousand years.
For more details: https://республика-саха-якутия.рф/stati/stranicy-istorii/diring-yurjah-stojanka-drevneishego-pale.ht....
Photos: Mikhail Mestnikov
The geologists contacted the Prilenskaya archeological expedition headed by Yury Mochanov and Svetlana Fedoseeva who immidately arrived at the site. As it turned out, the geologists fractionally destroyed a burial of the late Neolithic (Ymyyakhtakh culture, II millennium BC - contemporaries of Ehnaton and Nefertiti). This Neolithic burial (five ones) was completely excavated as a result of the works carried out here.
The archaic-looking implements, comparable in appearance only with the most ancient tools of the Oldowan epoch, began to be found on October 9, 1982, after the final disassembly of the Neolithic layers. Mochanov dated one archaic type of implements as 1.8 million years old, which exceeds the age of other sites in Siberia and is close to the age of the oldest human sites found in the Olduvai Gorge in Africa.
Further research revealed that the layers of the Diring culture were interspersed with layers of the Lena River, which he estimated to be at least 2-3 million years old. It led to the idea that the real age of the Diring culture could be even greater than the age of Oldowan finds, which means that humans could have originated in Siberia earlier than in North Africa believed to be the ancestral home of the Homo habilis. It was the Out of Africa theory that Mochanov began to adhere to.
However, the results of independent age-dating of Diring culture stone implements, which were published in 1997 by American scientists (Michael R. Waters, Steven L. Forman and James M. Pierson), showed that according to thermoluminescent testing, the age of quartzite implements was from 260 thousand to 370 thousand years.
For more details: https://республика-саха-якутия.рф/stati/stranicy-istorii/diring-yurjah-stojanka-drevneishego-pale.ht....
Photos: Mikhail Mestnikov