Revising the Importance/Significance of Cultural Heritage Objects Related to the Upper Paleolithic Period in Western Part of Central Asia

It has often been mentioned in archaeological literature that the number of cultural heritage objects dating back to Middle Paleolithic on the territory of the western part of Central Asia significantly exceeds that of Upper Paleolithic objects. This fact has been accounted for in several ways. The main hypothesis explaining the extreme scantiness of Upper Paleolithic cultural heritage objects (sites, settlements) in this huge region implies climate-driven depopulation during the last third of the Upper Pleistocene. On the basis of new data a different interpretation of the region’s Upper Paleolithic history is suggested, which supposes that even in increased aridity of the climate at the end of the Pleistocene the ancient man continued settling foothill and plateau regions in the western part of Central Asia. To verify the results obtained and to compare them with those from Middle-Paleolithic objects, the analysis of the degree of representativeness of Upper Paleolithic cultural heritage objects was conducted. The analysis enables the authors to conclude that the number and the degree of representativeness of Upper-Paleolithic cultural heritage objects in the region are not much lower, and in some respects even exceed those of Middle Paleolithic objects.


Keywords: cultural heritage objects, Upper Paleolithic, Central Asia, depopulation of a region, revision, representativeness of cultural heritage objects.

Revising the Importance/Significance of Cultural Heritage Objects Related to the Upper Paleolithic Period in Western Part of Central Asia