Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia 50 (4) 2022   doi:10.17746/1563-0110.2022.50.4.003-015

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The Final Early Paleolithic of Azerbaijan (Based on the Garaja Site)

A.A. Zeynalov¹, S.A. Kulakov^{2, 3}, I.A. Idrisov^{2, 4}, A.K. Otcherednoy^{2, 3}, R.N. Kurbanov^{5, 6}, and A.A. Anoikin^{2, 7}

¹Institute of Archaeology, Ethnography and Anthropology, Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences, H. Javid pr. 115, Baku, AZ1073, Republic of Azerbaijan

²Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, Pr. Akademika Lavrentieva 17, Novosibirsk, 630090, Russia

³Institute for the History of Material Culture, Russian Academy of Sciences, Dvortsovaya nab. 18, St. Petersburg, 191186, Russia

⁴Institute of Geology, Dagestan Federal Research Center, Russian Academy of Sciences, M. Yaragskogo 75, Makhachkala, 367009, Russia

⁵Lomonosov Moscow State University, Leninskie Gory 1, Moscow, 119991, Russia

⁶Institute of Geography, Russian Academy of Sciences, Staromonetny per. 29, bldg. 4, Moscow, 119017, Russia

⁷Altai State University, Pr. Lenina 61, Barnaul, 656049, Russia

We describe new findings relating to an Early Paleolithic site of Garaja on the Mingachevir Reservoir coast, Azerbaijan. Geological and geomorphological position of the area, structure of the Early-Middle Pleistocene deposits, faunal remains, and chronology are discussed. On the basis of geological characteristics and paleofauna (large mammals, mollusks) we tentatively date the site to the Bakunian age (0.8-0.4 Ma years ago). Artifacts, some 350 in number, found mainly on the surface, but reliably associated with lithological units, are described in detail. Primary reduction is dominated by parallel flaking, with occasional radial and “citron” cleavage. Most tools, made on pebbles and largeflakes, are large (handaxes, choppers, and side-scrapers). While the Garaja industry is generally homogeneous, the stratigraphic situation of the site and certain elements of technocomplex, such as solitary Levallois cores, a Quina scraper, and advanced forms of bifaces, indicate the presence of two chronologically and technologically successive complexes within the general Late Acheulean industrial tradition. Garaja correlates with other cave and open-air industries of the East and South Caucasus and adjoining regions dating to the first half of the Middle Pleistocene.

Keywords: Azerbaijan, Early Paleolithic, paleontology, Bakunian age, Middle Pleistocene, handaxes