The first laminar Mousterian obsidian industry in the north-central Caucasus, Russia (preliminary results of a multi-disciplinary research at Saradj-Chuko Grotto)

Abstract

The north-central Caucasus region is notable as the area producing the only obsidian source (called Baksan or Zayukovo) known in the Northern Caucasus. Recent research indicates that both Upper Paleolithic humans and Middle Paleolithic (MP) Neanderthals exploited the Zayukovo obsidian and transported it to distances in order 250 km from the source. However, only in 2016 the first stratified MP site (Saradj-Chuko Grotto) was found in the region. Preliminary results of the 2017 multi-disciplinary research suggest that the grotto was occupied by Neanderthals likely during a warm period of MIS 5. The Neanderthals used this cave as an active habitation site for consumption of ungulates, which they hunted, and production of tools from obsidian. Saradj-Chuko Grotto has yielded the first MP industry in the Northern Caucasus, in which obsidian artefacts absolutely prevail. The technical-typological peculiarities allow us to define the industry initially as the laminar Mousterian, which differs from the Eastern Micoquian industry widespread in the north-western Caucasus, that recall early MP artefacts from Weasel Cave located further east at the border with north-eastern Caucasus, MP sites in the Southern Caucasus and Zagros Mousterian in the Lesser Caucasus. Saradj-Chuko Grotto has a great potential to provide prominent results that illuminate culture-technological variability, differences of subsistence, and characteristics of obsidian exchange among MP Neanderthal groups in the Caucasus and the broader region.