Home – Home – Jornals – Humanitarian sciences in Siberia 2016 number

The article deals with the problem of Middle to Upper Paleolithic transition in Dagestan (Northeastern Caucasus). The sites of Tinit-1 and Rubas-1 (upper assemblage) in the Rubas valley is characteristic of a watershed period between the Middle and Upper Paleolithic in this part of the Caucasus. The analysis of these industries makes it possible to infer that Levallois technique was gradually phased out, with its transformation focused on a more intensive use of technical volume of a core within the semi-volumetric blade technique. At the same time, lithic industries underwent changes in their toolkits: the Middle Paleolithic pointed forms were vanishing, the treatment of side-scrapers tended to become simpler, the number and variability of the Upper Paleolithic types increased, the isolated tool-markers (shouldered and carinated end-scrapers, truncated-faceted pieces, transverse multiple burins) came into use. In addition, the general typological composition of tools corresponded to a single function. The lithic industries discussed above demonstrate gradual change within the frame of a single strategy during the whole period of their existence, lasting about 15 ka (50-35 ka BP). Comparison of materials from the sites of Rubas-1 and Tinit-1 with collections obtained from the sites in the South Caucasus has revealed significant differences between them. Thus, during the early stages of their occurrence (80-50 ka BP), the Middle Paleolithic industries of the Dagestan showed a resemblance to the industries of the Zagros-Taurus type (including materials obtained from the sites in the South Caucasus), and later they became distinctly different from the assemblages discovered in the adjacent areas. This suggests that the Dagestan industries represented a local version of the Middle Paleolithic industries developed in the Middle East. Therefore one can argue that the development of later lithic industries occurred in the region on a local basis.