AMS C-14 chronology of woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius Blum.) remains from the Shestakovo upper paleolithic site, western Siberia: Timing of human-mammoth interaction

We present a series of AMS C-14 dates from the upper paleolithic site of Shestakovo, southwestern Siberia. The C-14 ages range between 21 and 26 ka BP, corresponding to the so-called Sartan Glacial and Karginian Interglacial in Siberia. The majority of dates are from woolly mammoth bones, obtained from several discrete cultural layers, and range from ca. 25,700 to 21,600 BP. One charcoal date, ca. 23,300 BP, pinpoints the timing of at least one phase of site occupation by humans. The overlap of this date with the mammoth bone dates shows clearly that paleolithic people scavenged bones from natural death accumulations near the site. Mammoth hunting was most probably of limited scale. Conventional C-14 dates from Shestakovo are also discussed. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved