New data on the formation of local variations in the Upper Paleolithic of the Caucasus

Abstract

As of today, very few Upper Paleolithic sites are known on both the southern and the northern slopes of the Caucasus. Their materials allow tracing settlement dynamics in the region from 40/39 to 20 cal ka BP. The change of the research methodology, which today is focused on thorough excavations involving a range of natural science disciplines for complex investigation of the materials, including complete water sieving of the cultural de-posits, enables obtaining many new, often unique data on human occupation, life-support strategies, and adapta-tions of humans in different periods of the Upper Paleolithic in the Caucasus. In our paper, a wide range of issues is discussed, concerned with the cultural affinity, diversity, and interaction of the Upper Paleolithic population of the Caucasus. The earliest Upper Paleolithic industries (40–35 cal ka BP) of the southern as well as the northern slopes of the Caucasus show the closest affinity. Studies of the raw-material strategies indicate the presence of contacts between populations of the northwestern and South Caucasus throughout the entire Upper Paleolithic and the development of extensive social networks. During the Late Upper Paleolithic period, the materials of the North and South Caucasus acquire certain features of distinctiveness, as in the stone industry and in bone tools and decorations. The appearance of geometric microliths in the South Caucasus contemporaneously with the Near East attests to the contacts between these regions. The delivery of seashells from the Caspian Sea coast to the Lesser Caucasus also indicates the southeastern direction of the contacts. The import of seashells from the Black Sea coast to the northwestern Caucasus indicates the southwestern direction of contacts. The unique finds that have analogies in the Upper Paleolithic of the Russian Plain indicate contacts between populations of the northwestern Caucasus and the Russian Plain that belong to different cultural areas. The current data demon-strate formation of local differences in the culture of the Upper Paleolithic populations in both the South and the North Caucasus, including under the influence of the neighboring regions.

Archaeological evidence for two culture diverse Neanderthal populations in the North Caucasus and contacts between them

“…In the Caucasus, including the North Caucasus, the state of studies on the Middle Palaeolithic period differs significantly between the western and eastern half of this region [7][8][9]. Research of the last five years confirmed the previous assumption [10] that two culturally distinct populations of MP Neanderthals, which had different origins and traditions of stone-knapping and tool-making, inhabited the North Caucasus from at least late MIS 5 to mid MIS 3.…”

“…Layer 14 may be also correlated with late MIS 5, while the lower layers 15-23 have an older age, but rare lithic artefacts containing no diagnostic Mousterian tools were found in these Both the Levallois/laminar technology and the absence of bifacial tools typical for Eastern Micoquian distinguish the MP assemblages from Weasel cave from the Eastern Micoquian assemblages of the north-western Caucasus. Earlier, Golovanova and Doronichev [8,10] noted a particular similarity of MP assemblages from Weasel cave (especially from layers 12-14, dating from MIS 5) with the Zagros Mousterian industry in the Lesser Caucasus and Armenian Highlands [7] (Data 11 in S1 Text). The features that make the MP assemblages from the Weasel cave similar to Zagros Mousterian are the Levallois/laminar technology and the tool set that includes tool types typical for Zagros Mousterian assemblages in the Lesser Caucasus and Armenian Highlands (Fig 6; Data 12 in S1 Text).…”

“…Many authors describe the Micoquian also as the Keilmesser Group (KMG), assuming that asymmetric bifacial backed scraper-knives (Keilmesser in German) represent the 'index fossil' of this MP industry [32,33]. Almost all stratified MP sites known in the north-western Caucasus were defined to represent a regional variant of the Eastern Micoquian industry produced by Neanderthals, which fossils were found at Mezmaiskaya Cave and several other MP sites in the region [7,8,10,12,34].…”

“…40 ka [1][2][3][4][5][6]. Several culture different MP entities, represented by over 270 open-air and cave sites, are identified in the Caucasus [7][8][9]. Most researchers working in the Caucasus tend to see basic technological and typological distinctions associating the MP sites in the north-western Caucasus with the Eastern Micoquian in central and eastern Europe, and the MP sites in the South and Lesser Caucasus, and the Armenian Highlands with the Levantine Mousterian and Zagros Mousterian in south-western Asia.…”