Study of Paleolithic of Western Pamir-Tien-Shan mountains: overview of concepts

The history of Paleolithic studies in western Pamir-Tien-Shan area counts more than 80 years. At present there are more than 200 known Paleolithic sites, and different regional schemas of cultural and historical development were proposed. This paper provides a detailed description of the existing concepts of evolution of regional paleo technologies during the Paleolithic time. The author of the work defines three basic concepts. The first hypothesis was proposed А. P. Okladnikov and V. A. Ranov about the development of the Paleolithic of the region in two ways. The basis of the second concept of V. A. Ranov was his old the theory, but to organize the archaeological material was used typological-statistical method F. Borda. By analogy with European cultural classifications, explaining the variability of stone industries in the Western Pamir-Tien-Shan, the researcher identified several cultural groups. Similar ideas were proposed also by R. H. Suleymanov, M. R. Kasymov, and L. I. Kulakowskaya. Forming and developing of the third concept is associated with the research of the international archaeological expedition from IAET SB RAS, which works in Western Pamir-Tien-Shan region since 1998 year. As a result of this work it was questioned the presence of the Acheulian stage of the Early Paleolithic in the region, subdivision of the Mousterian industries of the region into different facies (especially, a definition of the Denticulate Mousterian), chronology of the transition from Middle to Upper Paleolithic was pushed far back to the past, and a cultural attribution of the local Upper Paleolithic was revised.