Discovery of the Sel'ungur-like industry in Western Tien Shan: Kuksaray-2 site (excavation 1)

The article provides data obtained during 2022 field excavations at the Kuksaray-2 site (materials from excavation 1). A collection of lithic artifacts (91 pieces) was obtained from eight stratigraphic positions in a discovered sedimentation sequence up to 7 m thick. Four upper culture-bearing lithostratigraphic units-2, 3, 5, and 7-contained complexes combining blade (including bladelet) and flake (in the centripetal variant of plane core knapping) orientation of lithic production, which is well represented in the Paleolithic of the Akhangaran River valley, in particular in the Middle Paleolithic materials of the Kulbulak site and a series of locations with the surface finds deposition. Moreover, fraction of blade knapping grows bottom-up. A rather integral technological ensemble characterized by a radial and simple planar strategy of primary knapping aimed at obtaining flakes, using two-sided processing in the design of tools, the presence of a specific tool form, such as Teyak points, were observed in four lower culture-bearing layers: 10, 12, 14, and 15. All these features present in the complex are generally typical of the Sel'Ungur industry, whose complexes outside the Fergana Valley have not been known until present. The available age determination by OSL for overlying layer 7 being ~70 kaplaces the discovered complex in the MIS-5 stage, which corresponds to the upper chronological boundary of the existence of the Sel'Ungur cave industry.