The early pleistocene site Mukhkay 1 camp (layer 7C) in Dagestan: structure of functional elements

New excavations of the upper layers at Mukhkay 1 conducted in 2019 obtained important data for describing specific features of one of the sites in the northeastern Caucasus dating to around one million years ago. The site belongs to the transitional stage from the Oldowan to the Acheulean. The examination of horizontal spatial patterning of lithic finds in layer 7c provides an insight to differentiated structuring elements of the living surface (niveau d'abitation). The latter point to the presence of specialization components in various sections of the site during the period when it was used. On a more general level, the examined materials are a convincing evidence that objects such as base camps are present in the repertoire of sites of the Caucasus at the transitional stage from Oldowan to Early Acheulean.