Between Malta and Makarovo IV: Corraded Flint Industries of Angara-Belsk Region (South Angara Basin)

The paper presents the author’s version of the cultural attribution of the corraded industries of the Southern Angara region from the Stoilo (II cultural layer) and Sosnovyi Bor (VI cultural layer) sites. Based on the similarity of the knapping technology, parameters of blanks and types of tools, it is proposed to associate these assemblages with the “classic” complex of the Malta site. The association with the «Makarovo Paleolithic stratum» can be assumed only within the framework of the evolutionary paradigm, i.e., provided that the Makarovo IV is accepted as the ancestral form of the Middle stage of the Upper Paleolithic of the region. The process of aeolian corrasion of artifacts, previously dated to the time of the Konoshchel episode (~MIS-3) or the Murukta cryochron (MIS-4), in the proposed paleoecological model correlates with the cryoarid environments of the early Sartan (MIS-2).