Long-distance contacts and social networks of the Upper Palaeolithic humans in the North-Western Caucasus (on data from Mezmaiskaya Cave, Russia)

Abstract

The article is addressed to the issue of long-distance contacts and social networks between the Upper Palaeolithic of the North-western Caucasus and other regions, basing on finds (artifacts from mammoth tusk, azurite sandstone pebble, Black Sea marine mollusc shells, and obsidian artifacts) from the Upper Palaeolithic layers at Mezmaiskaya Cave. Personal decorations from mammoth tusk found at Mezmaiskaya suggest rare contacts between culture-unrelated Upper Palaeolithic groups in the North-western Caucasus and Russian plain. Recurrent obsidian procurement from two specific remote obsidian sources at Mezmaiskaya suggests that there were two well-established social networks between Upper Palaeolithic humans in the North-western Caucasus and related human groups in the North-central and South Caucasus. The evidence of obsidian transport from Mezmaiskaya outlines borders of the Upper Palaeolithic cultural area with similar human population and culture in the Caucasus, within wich the Upper Palaeolithic groups in the North and South Caucasus had regular social-cultural relations, including exchange of obsidian raw material. Finds of Black Sea marine shells and an azurite sandstone pebble at Mezmaiskaya are discussed as non-utilitarian objects derived from remote areas located on the paths of the two obsidian exchange networks that likely outline directions and limits of direct movements of Upper Palaeolithic humans from the North-western Caucasus.