Connexions module: m17843 1
Central and Northern Asia:
Beginning to 8000 B.C.
∗
Jack E. Maxeld
This work is produced by The Connexions Project and licensed under the
Creative Commons Attribution License
†
1 CENTRAL AND NORTHERN ASIA
It is of interest that some geologists have written that during much of the Triassic and Jurassic periods
some 200 million years ago, southern Tibet was largely submerged below the tropical sea of Tethys - water
separating the continents of Eurasia and Gondwanaland. During the Cretaceous period 65 million years ago,
the Indian subcontinent separated, moved across the Tethys and collided with Eurasia with a terric impact
which formed the Himalayan range and the Tibetan plateau. The collision zone folded the earth's crusts to
almost a right angle. Then only a few million years ago further uplift of the Himalayans occurred, incident
to glaciation and other factors, and these mountains are still rising at the rate of 1/2 centimeter a year.
(Ref. 182
1
, 100
2
)
Skeletal remains have been found of the cave dwelling Neanderthal hunters all about the area from the
Caspian to the Aral seas. As the last Ice Age retreated, Siberian reindeer hunters progressively worked
northward. Men of truly modern type were pressing into this far north land some 35,000 years ago, where
they hunted mammoths within a hundred miles of the Arctic Circle, along the Pechora River. An early
wave of men spread from the Ural Mountains across central Asia to southern Siberia and Mongolia and
their relics have come to be known as the Mal'ta - Afontova Culture. A second wave penetrated eastern
Siberia along the Aldan River and Soviet excavations there have shown these people of the Diuktai Culture
to have hunted mammoths, muskoxen, bison and giant woolly rhinoceroses about 35,000 years ago. These
people may have been some of the rst adventurers across the land bridge into Alaska. Certain Siberian
tribes existing today (Nganasans, Eutsis, Dogan Chukchi, etc.) have a complex time-factored mythology
and ceremonials, including lunar calendar notations, bear and reindeer ceremonies, etc. that are related to
Upper Paleolithic cultures of 15,000 to 35,000 years ago.
Around Lake Baikal and the upper Yenissei River well preserved artifacts dating to 20,000 years ago have
been excavated. These include huts and small art objects, such as carved geese gurines and tiny female
statuettes. From the latter it is apparent that these Mongoloid people wore skin suits, parka hoods and
moccasins sewed on trousers. The bow and arrow may have been invented in central Asia by 13,000 B.C.
About 11,000 B.C. the Asiatic wolf probably was under human control, but only by getting animals under
∗
Version 1.2: Oct 14, 2008 10:56 pm GMT-5
†
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/
1
"Bibliography", reference [182] <http://cnx.org/content/m17805/latest/#oneeighttwo>
2
"Bibliography", reference [100] <http://cnx.org/content/m17805/latest/#onezerozero>
http://cnx.org/content/m17843/1.2/
