Introduction
From the 1920s until the 1990s, the Siuren I rockshelter was the only Crimean Paleolithic site with an archaeological sequence that was thought to represent almost the entire Crimean Upper Paleolithic industrial and chronological succession, additionally with an Early Upper Paleolithic component at its base. Siuren I was and is still considered to be a key site for the Crimean Upper Paleolithic. Some archaeologists have also interpreted many of the site’s lithic assemblages as Aurignacian, making Siuren I a significant site among the few true Aurignacian sites in Eastern Europe. New excavations at Siuren I in the 1990s yielded both new data regarding the site’s archaeological context and absolute dates.
The site (44° 58′ N; 34° 08′ E) is situated near the high road from Bakhchisarai to Yalta, 0.5 km from Tankovoe village (formerly Biuk-Siuren) and 13 km south of the town of Bakhchisarai, in southwestern Crimea. It is one of two rockshelters (Siuren II is a Final...
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Demidenko, Y.E. (2014). Siuren I Rockshelter: From the Late Middle Paleolithic and Early Upper Paleolithic to the Epipaleolithic in Crimea. In: Smith, C. (eds) Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-0465-2_1867
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