2022 investigations of Tsagaan Agui cave in the Gobi Altai

This article discusses the results of field expedition conducted at the Paleolithic site of Tsagaan Agui Cave in the Gobi Altai region in Mongolia. The cave ’s deposits contain a Middle and Upper Paleolithic archaeological sequence as well as cultural remains dating to the Holocene. Two pits were excavated in 2022, one of them located on the cave ’s Entrance Terrace where the entire sedimentary sequence is about 1.5 m thick. This stratigraphic profile corresponds to the 1988 and 1996profiles described during previous investigations of the cave. Layers 4-7 contained both archaeological and numerous osseous remains. A significant number of microfaunal remains found in the Entrance Terrace provides complementary highresolution data for the Late Pleistocene-Holocene paleoclimatic reconstruction in the region. The second excavation is an extension of Excavation 2 made in 2021 in the Main Chamber of the cave. One square meter of pit 2, uncovered down to layer 6 in 2021, was extended to another 3 sq. m. Deposits uncovered in 2022 include layers 1-5. The stratigraphic situation in pit 2 has changed due to the inclination of strata to the northwest and the appearance of new layers. The lithic assemblages from layers 1-3 are scarce. Layers 4 and 5 contained significant amount of artifacts compared to the collection excavated in 2021. These assemblages can be preliminarily identified as non-Levallois Mousterian industries. A bone industry found in layers 2.2-5 is mostly represented by informal tools.