Lithic industry in Khairkhan Cave, Mongolia

Discovered in 2022 in the southwest of the Khangai Mountains and located in a separate limestone massif, Khairkhan Cave is the only Paleolithic site in the area and the first cave site in the mountainous country in general. Less than 200 km away there is the Khoid-Tsenkheriyn-Agui Cave, known for its Paleolithic paintings. The Khairkhan Cave deposits were studied in 2022, revealing a stratigraphic sequence of four layers, the first three of which included cultural and faunal remains. The most numerous archaeological assemblage comes from layer 3. It is represented mainly by a flake industry with a small presence of a laminar component. The industry is based on imported stone raw materials, but there is an assemblage made on local quartz. The knapping is represented by unidirectional, including parallel, orthogonal and centripetal systems. A minor proportion of bidirectional knapping is noted, as well as possible knapping on an anvil. Informal types predominate in the tool kit, there are points, end scrapers, scrapers, and stemmed tools. The faunal complex is represented by various ungulates, a bear, and a woolly rhinoceros. Based on the characteristics of the stone technology, knapping technique, tool typology, and the presence of rhinoceros remains, the industry is attributed to the end of the early - middle stages of the Upper Paleolithic. Most likely, the industry of layer 3 can be tentatively placed between 20 and 30 ka BP. Complexes of this time are rare in the Mongolian Paleolithic, their range is limited to complexes in the Tolbor and Orkhon valleys, and the cave sites of Tsagaan-Agui and Khutul-Usny.