Geoarchaeological survey in Azerbaijan in 2022

In 2022, a joint Russian-Azerbaijani archaeological expedition carried out the work in the Republic of Azerbaijan. The coastal zone of the Mingachevir Reservoir was investigated within the Garaja location, where a representative collection of stone artifacts (55 pieces) and remains of the Pleistocene fauna (18 pieces) was made. Among the cores, primitive singleplatform and single-front cores of parallel knapping are mostly represented, and the rest of them are radial. Flakes are mostly large and medium, with primary flakes being a significant part among them. The toolset (15 pieces) includes choppers, hand axes, and single-blade scrapers. For the first time, peaks and a Keilmesser knife of the Bockstein type were found in Garaja. In general, the materials obtained from the site in 2022 do not stand out from the Garaja technocomplex, the features of which were established on the basis of the previous work (final Early Paleolithic), and, according to the natural-science data, relate to the late stage of the Baku time (~0.5-0.4 million years ago). Upon the completion of work at the site, a series of samples for OSL and cosmogenic nuclide dating was taken. In the course of exploratory work in the Aghstafa and Gazakh districts of Azerbaijan, two concentrated locations of surface material of the Paleolithic appearance and one location with the industry of the final stage of the Stone Age were discovered. The Azykh and Taglar Cave sites (Khojavendsky district) were monitored to assess their current state and prospects for the resumption of the archaeological work. Preserved areas of Pleistocene deposits were identified at the sites, and the areas of their research were determined: sampling for absolute dating (OSL, 14C), a number of natural-science methods (palynology, DNA testing, etc.) in the Taglar grot, and stationary excavations in the Azykh Cave.