CHRONOLOGY OF CULTURAL DEPOSITS OF THE CHOKHSKY MULTILAYER SETTLEMENT (AS DATA FOR 2022)

Abstract

The article publishes for the first time the results of radiocarbon dating of cultural deposits of the multilayered Chokh settlement in Central Dagestan (Northern Caucasus, Russian Federation). The Chokh settlement - a monument with layers of the Mesolithic, Neolithic and Bronze Age - for many decades has been and remains a key monument for the reconstruction of the landscape of one of the typical mountainous regions of the Northeast Caucasus at the end of the Pleistocene - early and middle Holocene, as well as the characteristics of the culture of the population that lived here in the Mesolithic and Neolithic eras. The radiocarbon dates obtained in recent years for all cultural layers of the site fill with concrete content the chronological scheme, which was previously based solely on the actual archaeological - comparative historical dating. The data obtained make it possible, in particular, to approach the solution of the problem concerning the time of transition in the North-Eastern Caucasus from an appropriating to a producing economy. According to the data presented in this paper, the domestication of animals and the cultivation of cereals in the region under consideration falls at the turn of 7-6 thousand years ago. BC. This fits well into the general context of cultural development in the Holocene of the entire Eastern Caucasus as a whole, including the southern part of this region.