Chronostratigraphy of the Orkhon-1 middle Paleolithic site in Central Mongolia

The Orkhon Valley in Mongolia is the one of those rare regions where archaeology indicates very intensive exploitation during the Paleolithic. In the 1980s, the stratified Orkhon-1, -7, and Moiltyn-am sites were discovered and investigated in the Orkhon Valley near Kharkhorin, along with abundant surface occurrences of archaeological material. Nearly every location of convenient, flat ground along a minimally 13 km stretch of the river's second terrace yields signs of human occupation during the Upper Pleistocene. Many of these sites were excavated decades ago and need to be re-dated, especially the Middle Paleolithic complexes, which have not yet been associated with reliable chronometric dates at all. New excavations at Orkhon-1 were initiated in 2018primarily to obtain samples for radiocarbon and OSL dating.