N.I. Khaldeyeva1, S.V. Vasiliev1, E.V. Akimova2, A.Y. Vasiliev3, N.I. Drozdov2, N.V. Kharlamova1, I.S. Zorina3, V.V. Petrovskaya3, and N.G. Perova3 1Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Leninsky Pr. 32a, Moscow, 119991, Russia 2Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, Pr. Akademika Lavrentieva 17, Novosibirsk, 630090, Russia 3Moscow State University of Medicine and Dentistry, Vucheticha 9a, Moscow, 127206, Russia
The mandible of a child from the Upper Paleolithic site of Listvenka in the Krasnoyarsk-Kansk forest-steppe, south-central Siberia, was subjected to a new detailed study. It was found in 1992 and was first published five years later with very incomplete information about place and context. The need for revision was prompted by the sophistication of dental trait batteries, new views of the diagnostic signifi cance of certain dental traits, availability of new techniques, etc. Now the fi nd can be related to habitation layer 12d, consistently dated to ca 13 ka on the basis of three estimates. Results of the multi-slice computed tomography suggest that the child was 3.5–4.5 years old. Like most fossils representing early anatomically modern humans, the specimen is rather robust by modern standards. Based on the combination of nonmetric and metric traits, the individual’s place among other eight Upper Paleolithic children was assessed. The distinctive feature of the mandible is generally modern morphology combined with robusticity and a neutral position on the west-to-east scale. We tentatively describe this trait combination as Upper Paleolithic Central Siberian.
