The article examines and analyzes the stone industries of the Upper Paleolithic Kul'tu-containing layers of the Kul'bulak site (Uzbekistan), a reference monument in Central Asia. As a result of the research conducted at this site, as well as at Kyzyl-Alma-2, Dodekum-2 and Shugnou in the Western Pamir-Tien Shan, the Kulbulak cultural and technological tradition is distinguished for the first time. It is characterized by a fine-plate technique and is represented by an original microlith complex, including products with a blunted back and triangular microliths. In the process of developing the tradition, the stages of appearance, formation, flourishing and replacement of objects of karenoid technology are distinguished. The characteristics of the industry of this technical tradition currently determine the general appearance of the Upper Paleolithic complexes of this region.
Key words: Upper Paleolithic, small plate production, karenoid technology, Central Asia.
Introduction
The Upper Paleolithic epoch in Central Asia has been studied very unevenly. The current situation significantly complicates a holistic interpretation of cultural events in the Asian part of Eurasia in the end of the Upper Neo-Pleistocene. As a result, all researchers dealing with the Upper Paleolithic on the territory of Uzbekistan (and Central Asia in general) recognize the heterogeneity of the known stone structures in the region, when almost every discovered Upper Paleolithic monument is a separate phenomenon (Vishnyatsky, 1999). Moreover, the almost complete absence of absolute age definitions even for a few stratified sites makes it impossible to identify the chronological and cultural variability of the Upper Paleolithic in a given territory. The cultural and chronological schemes of the Paleolithic of the region proposed by a number of researchers (Ranov, 1972; Tashkenbaev and Suleymanov, 1980; Davis and Ranov, 1999) only outline the general trends in the development of the Upper Paleolithic ...
Read more