Research of the Early Paleolithic assemblage for the Darvagchay-Zaliv-1 site in 2020

The article provides the results obtained in the course offield research of the early Paleolithic cultural and chronological assemblage from the Darvagchay-Zaliv-1 site. In 2017, a quarry was set up in the central part of the terrace in the site of the excavation and the surrounding area by a local road construction organization in order to use gravel deposits for the economic needs. As a result, some of the culture-containing deposits were destroyed. The main task of the survey in 2020 was to determine the presence and concentration of early Paleolithic artifacts in the remaining territory of the site. To do this, a small excavation area of 9 sq. m was made along the quarry wall. During excavations, a collection of 108 lithic artifacts was created. Thus, it was determined that the culture horizon at the site adjacent to the quarry includes a small number of artifacts and probably belongs to the periphery of the parking lot. Pebbles and fragments of sandstone, limestone, andflint were used to produce artifacts. The resulting collection of stone artifacts is characterized primarily by a weak typological expression and instability of the nucleoid and tool forms. The group of morphologically expressed nuclei is not numerous, and the method of crushing was used to obtain blanks. This industry is characterized by the presence of simple parallel nuclei, notched and spiked products, single-edged scrapers and atypical scrapers, as well as a small group of pebble (choppers) and bifacially processed (chippers) tools. The Darvgchay-Zaliv-1 site is still promising in terms of studying the early Paleolithic industries of the region, to determine the time of their appearance and their place among other assemblages of the early Paleolithic of the Caucasus.