The Chokh archaeological culture: composition and structure of basic components

The Chokh archaeological culture is a specific local formation characterized by impressive technological and typological features chronologically tied to the Mesolithic and Neolithic of Inner Dagestan. At the Neolithic stage this culture manifests itself as a multicomponent formation composed of three diverse components. The triunity in this combination is unique for the Caucasus. One of the key components of this culture is flint industry. Its striking originality is emphasized by such cultural elements as small Levallois flat cores for flakes and four variants of points (arrowheads) of the Chokh type. These specific features emerged in the culture of Inner Dagestan as early as the Mesolithic and, without any major changes, persisted in the areas of medium-tohigh plateaus (around 1200-1800 m above the sea level) and intermountain valleys. The second component of the Neolithic Chokh culture is reflected in ceramics which typologically and technologically coincide with the ceramics known in the early farming culture of the eastern Trans-Caucasus region (Shulaveri-Shomutepe). Finally, the third component is the method of exerting manual pressure (using a lever pressure device?) employed to obtain standardized microblades. Each of the described cultural components has its own source and/or direction of cultural links and external influences. Local genetic roots are traced only for the above-said specific features of lithic industry. Technical and typological traits of ceramics point to links between the Chokh population and the groups attributed to the Trans-Caucasus Shulaveri-Shomutepe culture. The northern vector of cultural impacts (northern relative to the Dagestan region), which is opposite to the eastern Trans-Caucasus direction of contacts, manifests itself in the method of exerting manual pressure in flint knapping that was introduced in the technological arsenal of the mountainous Neolithic represented by the Chokh culture.