Karama site in Siberia: 500-800 ky old

Following yesterday's post on a site known a Diring Yuriakh in northeastern Siberia that is 400,000 years old, today's post will look at another ancient Siberian site known as Karama which is just 15 km (less than 10 miles) from the famous Denisova Cave in the Altai.

The map shows the main sites in the Altai region, the red arrows mark Karama, and Denisova Cave.

Non-sapiens humans lived there 400,000 - 800,000 years ago

According to an online article this region, at that time had a relatively benign climate, and a forest cover with animal resources that favored settling there. But these were not modern human beings (we appeared ~300,000 years ago), these people were possibly Denisovans, Neanderthals, or even their predecessors, H. heidelbergensis or Homo erectus who fashioned cobble tools similar to the primitive Oldowan lithic industry:

"The earliest evidence of penetration of the Paleolithic man into the Altai is the Karama site dating back 400–800 thousand years. In red-color deposits of the lower Pleistocene, some large-size pebbles were found with roughly chopped-off sharp edges used as primitive stone implements like side scrapers, choppers, and choppings, which constituted the pebble-tool industry typical of the early Paleolith epoch. In that age, the climate in the Anui Valley was mild and favorable for the life of the primitive man. The occurrence of such deciduous species as elm, hornbeam, linden, maple, and oak, exotic for the contemporary flora of the Altai, in the birch and pine forests of the region testify to it. Numerous and diverse fauna inhabited the rich vegetation of the forests. Small and medium-sized mammals such as badger, marmot, hare, etc., made a significant part of the diet of hunters of the time. As for large prey, primitive men used to make a living by gathering the remains of meals of such predators as hyenas, wolves, or bears."

Most of the literature on this site is in Russian language (thank God there is a Google translating tool!). The site was excavated by Anatoly P. Derevianko and published in 2001 and 2002 according to his colleague M. Shunkov, both from the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

These appear to be the first two publications on Karama, and they are cited in the literature, but I have not been able to find them:

Derevianko, A.P., M.V. Shunkov and V.A. Ulianov. 2001a. Novoe rannepaleoliticheskoe mestonakhozhdenie v Gornom Altae. Problemy arkheologii, etnografii i antropologii Sibiri i sopredelnykh territorii. 7:115-19. (In Russian).

Derevianko, A.P. and M.V. Shunkov. 2002. Middle Paleolithic industries with foliate bifaces in Gorny Altai. Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia 1:16-42.

One paper, Early Paleolithic Site of Karama in Altai: Initial Research Results, Archaeology, ethnography and anthropology of Eurasia 3 (23) 2005, provides an dating, when it ncludes that "Taken together, the palynological study materials of the section, along with other analytical data, allow us to correlate the accumulation time of the deposits in the middle and lower strata of the section with the Early Neopleistocene, i.e., to determine their age in the range of 400,000-800,000 years."

The old date for this site is ratified by a presentation given by A. P. Derevianko, M. V. Shunkov, 2008: Early Paleolithic of Altai, see p. 127 in the abstracts listed which provides sediment dating for this Early Paleolithic site.

Original (Russian) caption: At the ancient Karama site in the Altai Mountains, primitive pebble tools were found in multilayered Pleistocene deposits. Photo by A. Postny (top) and S. Zelins. Source

An article about Derevyanko (who seems to be an authority on Denisovans and their migrations across Asia), includes the image shown above, which depicts: on the upper left side, the Karama site, the same image can be seen in Derevyanko and Shunkov's 2005 paper captioned Fig. 1. View of the Karama site in the Anuy Valley., the lower left stone tool is seen in Fig. 17 of that same paper as Fig. 17. "2 - beak-shaped tool", and the excavation (lower righgt) can be seen in the paper as Fig. 9, the excavation #2 at Karama -but full of diggers.

Cobble, Oldowan-like tools

Shunkov, 2005 (English) describes the stone tools as follows: "... Paleolithic artifacts, which have been attributed to the Lower Paleolithic pebble industry judging form the morphology of the finds. The assemblage of the products of primary reduction include pebbles showing signs of core preparation with plain striking platforms and negative scars of parallel detachments and short non-faceted spalls. The collection of typologically distinct tools includes longitudinal and transverse racloirs; denticulate and notch-denticulate tools fashioned on short spalls, and cutting tools of the chopper/chopping tool type with a convex flattened cutting edge and a trimmed massive back. Most pebble tools from Karama are characterized by archaic morphological features and a comparatively advanced technology of secondary treatment." So they are primitive (cobbles) yet their finishing is advanced.

The original dates for the site were much earlier 1.77 to 1.95 million years, but it was refined to a lower limit of 800,000 years (see Kuzmin, Y.V., Kazanskii, A.Y., 2015 in Debatable questions of Siberia settlement by early humans. Stratigr. Geol. Correl. 23, 114–118 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1134/S0869593815010074) who writes: "... Judging by the results of a preliminary study of the Zasukhino site in Trans-Baikal, early humans could have appeared in Siberia about 1 million years ago, but additional research is required in order to obtain reliable information..." Regarding Karama, he this paper considers that the site "corresponds to MIS 16–19", roughly 620,000 to 780,000 years ago.

Regarding the stone tools, this paper confirms the technology employed by the people at Karama and, again, its antiquity:

"Archaeological materials of Karama are represented by Early Paleolithic pebble industries. They are characterized by irregular and parallel flaking. The primary flaking products include core-like pebbles with smooth or roughly prepared striking platforms, as well as flakes with sub parallel dorsal patterns and prepared platforms. The tool set is dominated by longitudinal, diagonal and transverse side-scrapers (as a rule naturally-backed or negative-backed), followed by massive-base choppers with straight, convex, or concave working edge. Next in importance are notches, denticulates and beaked tools formed mainly by Clactonian notches. The rest of the inventory is constituted by large pebble tools with an intentionally shaped thorn-like projection, core-like endscrapers formed by steep or abrupt retouch, massive tools with wide-angle working part, knives on “citrus slices” with clear traces of utilization, flakes bearing intermittent retouch.
Thus the site of Karama contains a sequence of Early Paleolithic horizons occurring in clear stratigraphic conditions. They yielded an expressive pebble industry, which can tentatively be dated to the period of 600–800 kya. For the time being this is the oldest archaeological assemblage with reliable stratigraphic and palynological data known in Northern and Central Asia."

Original (Russian) caption: Fig. 6. Stone inventory from layer 7 in excavation 1 of Karama. 1, 3 - side scrapers; 2, 4 - backed tools.. Source

A similar content is found in another paper by Kuzmin and Kazansky, 2019 (Chronology of the Lower Palaeolithic Site of Karama (Gorny Altai): Facts and Problems, Stratum plus. 2019. No 1), whose abstract places it not older than 800 kya. It reads as follows:

"Factual information and its interpretation regarding the geological age of the Lower Palaeolithic site of Karama (Altai Mountains, Siberia) are considered. It is demonstrated that palynological data do not allow to date this site to earlier than ca. 800 kya; archaeological data are consistent with this estimate. The viewpoint of V. S. Zykin with coauthors, according to which the age of Karama is ca. 1.95—1.77 mya, finds no support in the light of the available geological and paleomagnetic evidence. The so-called “Karama suite” of the Upper Pliocene of Altai Mountains in reality does not exist. For the time being there are no reliable data indicating than the initial peopling of Siberia took place prior to ca. 1 mya."

Siberia to America?

This post and the previous one have shown the presence of humans in Northern Siberia long before the previously accepted dates. 500,000 to 800,000 years ago some humans (Denisovans? H. erectus? H. heidelbergensis? were thriving in this region, fashioning tools that were primitive (not the Acheulean tools of erectus, or Mousterian tools of Neanderthals). Again, it makes one wonder, why didn't they continue their journey across Siberia and reach America?

My next post will explore this interesting hypothesis.

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Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia Copyright 2009-2026 by Austin Whittall © 

Petralona: Neanderthals and Homo heidelbergensis coexisted 300 ky ago

The famous skull found in Petralona, close to Thessaloniki, Greece in a cave now known as "the Mausoleum", back in 1960. It was encrusted and cemented to the cave's wall with calcite, a mineral that precipitates from mineral-rich water in caves; it is known for shaping stalactites and stalagmites. Its age was unknown. But it was dated by C. Falguerès et al., (2025) who published a paper on it last September.

The paper reports how the team managed to date the skull: "the Petralona cranium has a minimum age of 286 ± 9 ka." This research also places it in our ancestral tree: "From a morphological point of view, the Petralona hominin forms part of a distinct and more primitive group than Homo sapiens and Neanderthals, and the new age estimate provides further support for the coexistence of this population alongside the evolving Neanderthal lineage in the later Middle Pleistocene of Europe."

The skull belongs to a more primitive group of hominins, older than Neanderthals and our species. The age of the sample shows that it coexisted with Neanderthals in Europe, alongside Neanderthals well into the Mid Pleistocene Period.

Petralona Skull.

This finding is important because it shows that human evolution is more complex than imagined. There were different kinds of of humans alive, coexisting, across the globe 300 ky ago: Denisovans, Anatomically Modern Humans, Neanderthals, and now, Homo heidelbergensis, and probably more. They surely met, exchanged sex, and know-how, shaping our evolution.

Linar trees with a single Neanderthal - Human split in Africa 600 ky ago, and simple models with unique, singular admixture events as proposed by certain models don't seem to accurately reflect the population dynamics that was going on in the Old World (and who knows, perhaps also in America), 300,000 years ago.

In a future post we will look into the validity of these trees and their shortcomings according to statistician and geneticist Alan R. Templeton.

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Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia Copyright 2009-2026 by Austin Whittall © 

The Three Out Of Africa Migrations

I came across research by J. H. Relethford, who in a paper published in Nature in 2008 cites Templeton's work about the different expansions of our ancestors out of their African homeland.

The Archaeological Evidence

The fossil evidence shows that H. georgicus and H. erectus lived in Eurasia roughly 1.7 million years ago, and that there were different hominins in that region since then. The remains of H. heidelbergensis, Neanderthals and Denisovans also show evolution and possibly other out of Africa events around 600 ky ago. Finally our own branch, H. sapiens left Africa possibly twice, an early, "failed" migration around 250-100 ky ago and the final move that established modern humans around the world ~60 ky ago. At least, that is the official account.

The Genetic Confirmation

What is interesting is that genetic analysis done by Templeton confirms these dates. Again, I wonder if this fit between the data in the genes and the bones and stones is real, or was somehow eased with the foreknowledge of what had to be confirmed...

Below Is what Relethford wrote, including his citation of Templeton:

"The most comprehensive of these analyses has been performed by Templeton (2005, 2007) who examined 25 DNA regions: mtDNA, Y chromosome DNA, 11 X-linked markers and 12 autosomal markers using a 6-Myr-old date for the human–chimpanzee divergence for calibration. Using a method known as nested-clade phylogeographic analysis, Templeton found that 15 of these markers showed evidence of geographic expansion. The estimated ages of range expansion vary significantly across these markers and do not fit a model of a single expansion, but instead cluster into three groups: (1) an expansion out of Africa 1.9 Myr ago (95% CI=0.99–3.10 Myr), (2) an expansion out of Africa 650 000 years ago (95% CI=390 000–970 000 years ago) and (3) an expansion out of Africa 130 000 years ago (95% CI=9600–169 000 years ago)."

These three events coincide with the H. georgicus and H. erectus, the Neanderthal, and the H. sapiens migrations! I find the confidence intervals rather large (0.9 to 3.1 million years for erectus, 390-970 ky for Neanderthals and 9.6 to 169 ky for us). Such large intervals reveal a high uncertainty in the statistical analysis.

Is this a Coincidence? or do genetics and hard archaeology agree with solid evidence?

Relethford warns that: "Given the large confidence intervals typical of coalescent analysis, this correspondence should be taken as suggestive and not conclusive, but the apparent congruence of the fossil and genetic records is interesting and deserves continued attention, particularly as data on more low-recombination DNA regions become available."

Note that word of caution about Templeton's findings. John Henry Relethford originally was a staunch supporter of the Multiregionalism theory (humans evolved in parallel in the Old World and intermingled) and rejected the initial Out of Africa theory which suggested a total replacement of other hominins by modern humans as they marched across Eurasia, wiping them out. He later shifted to a compromise theory (Mostly Out of Africa) where there was an interplay between African H. sapiens and the hominins in Eurasia. He was concerned with the fate of these Eurasian people.

Alan Templeton on the other hand adopted a rigid position against the replacement Out of Africa theory, criticizing it. His papers reflect this (see above), and he continued with another paper in 2013, and again in 2023, supporting his point of view.

Templeton wrote a very interesting critique about some statistical tools, and admixture trees, which will be the subject of a future post.

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Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia Copyright 2009-2025by Austin Whittall © 

Homo Heidelbergensis lived in Glacial Britain 712 to 424 ky ago

Our distant relatives and ancestors managed to survive in the icy and frozen wastelands of northern Britain 712 to 424 kya according to a paper published on Sep. 1, 2025.

These people were not Homo sapiens they were Homo heidelbergensis which we believe are the stock from which Neanderthals, Denisovans, and we originated from.

Read the article: Key, A., Clark, J., Lauer, T. et al. Hominin glacial-stage occupation 712,000 to 424,000 years ago at Fordwich Pit, Old Park (Canterbury, UK). Nat Ecol Evol (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-025-02829-x

The site reveals that these people were well adapted to living in cold places. They also found tools of different people. The early occupants of the site lived there between 773 and 607 ky and used acheulean tools (first developed by H. erectus). This period was cold. This is "evidence of the earliest known Acheulean bifaces in northern Europe". Ths site was inhabited again some two hundred thousand years later (420 ky) by another group of hominins that also used Acheulean tools.

The paper stresses the fact that this site "provides evidence for Lower Palaeolithic hominins [and] early human presence above 51° latitude during a glacial stage and handaxe production in northern Europe from MIS 17 to 16".

The paper states that these people "could, therefore, have had the cultural and technological attributes necessary to survive in these cooler climates and ecologies." The authors reckon that they occupied this area during a cold but not glacial period, when there were grasslands and grazing animals in the area. Yet they don't rule out habitation during a colder period either, the evidence hints at a "potentially summer-only occupation and even ice-proximal conditions." At that time, the glacial front was only 65 km north of the site. Walls of ice marked the limit of habitability. There is little evidence of trees in the area and the plants recovered from the site suggest it was similar to the Siberian steppe.

However, the oldest evidence for controlled fire in Europe is more recent, some 300 to 400 thousand years ago. We don't know if these people in Britain used fire. Did they burn dung in the absence of wood? or did they burn bones? In any case, it shows that people with less cranial capacity than modern humans or our more recent relatives, the Neanderthals and Denisovans, could cope with cold, icy climates and survive. This means that they could have done the same in Northeastern Asia (Northern China, Manchuria, and Siberia) on their way into America at any time between 700 and 400 ky.

CAPTION HERE. Copyright © 2025 by Austin Whittall

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Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia Copyright 2009-2025 by Austin Whittall ©