The earlier Upper Paleolithic site of Sunghir, northern Russia yielded elaborate burials of an adult and of two immature individuals, dug into the sediments below a rich archeological horizon. The faunal remains and the human burials have yielded a series of radiocarbon dates, raising questions as to the age of the site and whether the burials postdated the archeological remains. Current radiocarbon dates on the human remains place them between 25,000 and 27,500 14C BP; this age is among the majority of the faunal dates, supporting the stratigraphic and artifactual evidence for contemporaneitys of the burials and the archeological levels. Multiple lines of evidence from the site indicate that the occupation and the burials were during a moderately warm phase of the Interpleniglacial (Marine Isotope Stage 3). Paleoclimatic correlation indicates that they must therefore date to one of the Greenland Interstadials, most likely GI-5 ~28,000 14C BP. These dates place the Sunghir site and the human burials among the earliest of the Mid Upper Paleolithic elaborate burials currently known.

Department of Anthropology Washington University Saint Louis MO 63130 USA

Institute of Archaeology Russian Academy of Sciences Dm Ulianova str 19 Moscow Russia

Research Institute and Museum of Anthropology Moscow State University Mokhovaya str 11 Moscow Russia

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