Late Acheulean of the Northern Caucasus and the problem of transition to the Middle Paleolithic

Late Acheulean sites on the Northern Caucasus are found from the Black Sea coast (Mis Kadosh) in the west to Northern Ossetia (Hutor Popov 1 in the Terek River valley) in the east (fig. 1). A total of nearly 40 locations (Autlev, 1961; 1981; Golovanova, 1986; Formozov, 1965) are known here now. The majority of them are situated in the Belaya River basin. This partly reflects the fact that most field research was conducted in the area, but it may also be due to specific conditions of the Paleolithic remains taphonomy in the region. Three local groups of the Late Acheulean sites are of particular interest now. They are concentrated in a relatively small area of the Northwestern Caucasus, and include the Abadzeh and Khadjoh groups in the middle part of the Belaya River valley, and the Abin group near Krasnodar.