Stone industry of the Early Middle Paleolithic at the Darvagchai-Zaliv-1 site (southeastern Dagestan)

This article discusses the Middle Paleolithic complex of the Darvagchai-Zaliv-1 site, focusing on the collection of stone artifacts and chronological positions of the industry. Archaeological artifacts were deposited in a layer ofpaleosol. The stone inventory was distinguished by the Levallois splitting technique and Middle Paleolithic toolkit. The presence of fire pits without traces of structures, together with scattering of archaeological evidence over a wide area, indicate multiple short-term visits to the site by ancient humans, which chronologically corresponds to the Riss-Wurm (Eem, Mikulin) interglacial in 125-110 ka BP (MIS 5e) according to the data of natural sciences and absolute dating. According to all main parameters, this complex demonstrates some cultural and chronological similarities to stone industries of cave complexes in the southern part of the Central Caucasus. However, significant differences in technical and typological appearance of the stone industry with the pronounced Levallois features make it possible to speak about specific outlook of the Middle Paleolithic of Southeastern Dagestan. An analysis of all available data indicates that despite the significant number of the known Middle Paleolithic sites in the Caucasus, it is currently not possible to find direct parallels to the archaeological evidence from Darvagchai-Zaliv-1. This may be caused both by scarcity of evidence from the industries and cultural diversity at that time which did not exclude an original Middle Paleolithic culture in this territory.