Stratigraphy Archaeologists have identified seven archaeological layers at Okladnikov Cave.
Artefacts Nearly 4000 lithic tools have been recovered from Okladnikov Cave.
Mousterian artefacts are found throughout all seven layers. The tool assemblage consisted mostly of
scrapers and scraper-knives. Around a quarter of the tools at Okladnikov Cave were made from
jasperoids, while around 5% were made from
hornstones. The lithic industry at Okladnikov Cave shares most similarities with another site in the
Altai-Sayan region, Chagyrskaya Cave, and are rather distinct from other Altai sites. However, unlike at Chagyrskaya Cave,
Levallois-type tools are uniquely found at Okladnikov Cave. Both sites contain a great number of Neanderthal/Mousterian stone tools. The lithic culture was initially referred to as the
Altai Mousterian; nowadays, the culture is more commonly referred to as the
Sibiryachikha culture or the
Sibiryachikha variant.
Fauna Over 6000 animal fossil elements were discovered at the cave, representing at least 20 different species. The remains of marmot, gray wolf, red fox, bear, horse,
cave hyena,
woolly rhinoceros, reindeer,
steppe bison, red deer,
Siberian ibex and
argali sheep were commonly found inside the cave, with a heavy presence of cave hyena and woolly rhinoceros remains. Some beaver,
Panthera spelaea and red wolf remains were also discovered. The heavy presence of cave hyena remains indicate that the cave was most likely intermittently shared between cave hyenas and hominins.
Diet Comparative studies on diet show that Neanderthals from the Altai-Sayan region lived in a manner similar to that of late European Neanderthals. Both show signs of being specialized hunters who were likely dependent on the subsistence hunting of large herbivores.
Hominin fossils 168 hominin fossil elements were discovered at the cave, with the majority coming from adults. The hominin remains include five teeth and nine cranial fragments, most likely representing at least four distinct individuals. Archaeologists had long suspected that the fossil hominin remains belonged to Neanderthals; however, some had argued that the remains belonged to humans with mixed
Homo erectus traits. Rather fragmented and consequently hard to classify, morphological comparisons with Neanderthals did not produce definitively convincing results. This question was resolved through the successful application of DNA testing to some of the hominin fossil remains.
Samples Dating information was directly obtained from several hominin fossil elements at Okladnikov Cave (
Source:).
Archaeogenetics In 2007, researchers from the
Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology succeeded in extracting DNA from two fossil hominin fragments from Okladnikov Cave: the humeral
diaphysis of a juvenile and a separate femur fragment. mtDNA sequencing confirmed that both fragments most likely belonged the same individual, dubbed
Okladnikov 2. The
mtDNA sequences of the
HVR I (hypervariable region I) from
Okladnikov 2 confirmed that the individual was Neanderthal. On the basis of mtDNA analysis,
Okladnikov 2 was found to be more related to European and western Asian Neanderthals. A 2014 re-analysis teasing out ancient DNA from contaminated sequences allowed researchers to complete the mtDNA sequence from
Okladnikov 2. The completed sequence shows that the
Okladnikov 2 mtDNA is basal to that sequenced from
Mezmaiskaya 1 from
Mezmaiskaya Cave and is even closer to western Neanderthals than previously thought. == Implications ==