Analyzing blank cutting edge efficiency associated with the adoption of microblade technology: A case study from Tolbor-17, Mongolia.

The phenomenon of lithic miniaturization during the Late Pleistocene at times coincided with increased artifact standardization and cutting edge efficiency-likely reflecting the use of small, sharp artifacts as interchangeable inserts for composite cutting tools and hunting weapons. During Marine Isotope Stage 2, Upper Paleolithic toolmakers in northern East Asia specifically used pressure techniques to make small, highly standardized lithic artifacts called microblades. However, little is currently known about how microblades affected the cutting edge efficiency of the toolkits they were a part of. We applied three methods of analyzing cutting edge efficiency to two Upper Paleolithic assemblages recently excavated from Tolbor-17, Mongolia, that document the periods before and after the introduction of microblade technology to the Tolbor Valley. A model incorporating allometric relationships between blank cutting edge length and mass suggests no difference in efficiency between the two periods, while two more conventional approaches both indicate a significant increase. The potential for improved cutting edge efficiency is only observed when the microblade sample is artificially inflated via simulation. Our results highlight challenges related to detecting and interpreting archaeological differences in cutting edge efficiency at the assemblage level.

Symbolic innovation at the onset of the Upper Paleolithic in Eurasia shown by the personal ornaments from Tolbor-21 (Mongolia).

Figurative depictions in art first occur ca. 50,000 years ago in Europe, Africa, and Southeast Asia. Considered by most as an advanced form of symbolic behavior, they are restricted to our species. Here, we report a piece of ornament interpreted as a phallus-like representation. It was found in a 42,000 ca.-year-old Upper Paleolithic archaeological layer at the open-air archaeological site of Tolbor-21, in Mongolia. Mineralogical, microscopic, and rugosimetric analyses points toward the allochthonous origin of the pendant and a complex functional history. Three-dimensional phallic pendants are unknown in the Paleolithic record, and this discovery predates the earliest known sexed anthropomorphic representation. It attests that hunter-gatherer communities used sex anatomical attributes as symbols at a very early stage of their dispersal in the region. The pendant was produced during a period that overlaps with age estimates for early introgression events between Homo sapiens and Denisovans, and in a region where such encounters are plausible.