Coastal Dagestan middle Paleolithic Marine Izotope Stage 5 assemblages: regional context

The article discusses the development of Middle Paleolithic assemblages in Caucasus during MIS5. The majority of Middle Paleolithic Caucasus archaeological sites are located in Southern Caucasus and along the Black Sea coast. In Northeastern Caucasus only a few exposed lithic assemblages were reported that demonstrate technical and typological characteristics typical for the Middle Paleolithic. During the last decade more than 20 Paleolithic sites including several multilayered occupations in the Darvagchai and Rubas River basins have been discovered. The assemblages from Coastal Dagestan sites like Rubas-1 (layer 3), Darvagchai-zaliv-1 (complex 2), Chumus-Inic, Rubas-2-5 etc. should be associated with the Middle Paleolithic. Cultural bearing layers of the majority of the sites had been included in the pebble glomeration, dated to Late Khazar time (0,2-0,1 Ma). The total number of artifacts in these assemblages is ~ 1700 items. Most of them (~ 1400 items) were found in the stratified sediments (Rubas-1 (layer 3), Darvagchai-zaliv-1 (complex 2), etc.). Results. The techniques of parallel unifacial, radial and Levallois flaking are typical for the Middle Paleolithic complexes of Coastal Dagestan. Generally, these assemblages can be characterized as non-Levallois and non-laminar (Ilam ~ 10), with the limited presence of Levallois technique and low faceting indices (IL and IF function show_eabstract() { $('#eabstract1').hide(); $('#eabstract2').show(); $('#eabstract_expand').hide(); }