Excavations in Tsagaan Agui cave in 2023

Excavations in Tsagaan Agui cave in Mongolia in the field season of2023focused on three areas: excavation pit 2 which has been studied since 2021, exploration pit of1995-1996 (both in the Main chamber), and additional trench north of the entrance to the cave. The trench was excavated in order to determine the possibility of artifact and raw material transportation from the quarry-workshop located 80 m northwest of the cave. The deposits included six lithological layers with Paleolithic evidence. The exploration pit of 1995-1996 was unearthed for taking sample sediments for the DNA, grain-size, and XRF analyses. Excavation of deposits underlying layer 5.1 in pit 2 were continued. The stratigraphy of this pit differed from the longitudinal cross-section of the cave in the units bordering pit 2. Archaeological evidence from layers 5.2-7 has changed our view on the attribution of the so-called Middle Paleolithic complexes in Tsagaan Agui, where early forms of Levallois cores and evidence of bipolar reduction technique, including debitage and used hammerstones, have been discovered. Tools, represented by a series of points from layer 5.3, side-scrapers, end-scrapers in layer 6, and perforators, indicate developed tool manufacturing. Faunal remains dramatically decreased in these layers, but new species absent from the upper layers of the cave included steppe polecat and mountain weasel. One possible Middle Pleistocene yellow steppe lemming was also found in the microfaunal assemblage.