The History of Distinguishing Acheulian Industries in Uzbekistan

The article is devoted to studying the lower layers of the Kulbulak monument and distin­guishing the early Paleolithic industries in the practice of archaeological research in the sec­ond half of the twentieth century. The main site at Kulbulak is known as a key monument of the Stone Age in the western part of Central Asia. The first researcher of the monument M. R. Kasymov distinguished 46 cultural layers in the monument column, containing Early, Middle and Late Paleolithic industries. The bottom 22 layers of the main site were identified as Acheulian, both in cultural and chronological aspects. However, the arguments for such attribution of the industries were quite controversial. New results of excavations at Kulbulak in 2007–2010, new dates and revision of documents and archaeological materials of exca­vations of the 60–80s of the 20^th century have shown the absence of Acheulian characteris­tics in the studied industries. These complexes are evidences of the transition from Middle to Upper Paleolithic in Central Asia. The complexes are characterized as flaking with early appearance of fine-flaking technique.

Keywords: western part of Central Asia, Lower Paleolithic, transition from Middle to Upper Paleolithic, history of research.

The History of Distinguishing Acheulian Industries in Uzbekistan