The terminal Pleistocene –ea rly Holocene cultural continuity in the north-central Caucasus: Evidence from Psytuaje rockshelter in the region context

Abstract

• Psytuaje rockshelter is the first stratified late Epipaleolithic (EPP) site that was intensively investigated in the northern slope of the Central Caucasus. • The multidisciplinary research in Psytuaje rockshelter provides new important data about subsistence strategies and culture of the EPP hunter-gatherer groups. • Our study reveals cultural and technological similarities between late EPP assemblages in the north-central and in the north-western Caucasus, including those from Mezmaiskaya cave. • The new data indicates that the late EPP culture developed continuously across the Pleistocene–Holocene transition and up to the early Holocene.