A New Interpretation of Lithic Industry from Layer 0 of the Shugnou Site (Cis-Pamir)
The article studies the Final Pleistocene-Early Holocene stone industry of layer 0 of the Shugnou site. The Shugnou site is located in the Cis-Pamir (Tajikistan). The site was discovered in 1968 by V.A. Ranov. Field excavations at Shugnou were carried out in 1969 and 1970. On the Shugnou site V.A. Ranov determined 5 cultural horizons (4 to 0): four lower horizons were attributed to the Upper Paleolithic, and layer 0 was attributed to the Epipaleolithic. Given that the new stage of research was reconsidered, the review was made of the attribution of the Upper Paleolitic materials of Shugnou and a lot of new data on the Mesolithic complexes in the region were obtained. The 0 layer industry of the Shugnou monument requires detailed study to clarify its cultural and chronological position. The collection of stone artifacts of layer 0 in Shugnou currently has more than 200 artifacts. Primary knapping in the Shugnou industry is represented by flat-face and prismatic cores, in the tool kit the point with backed distal end and end scrapers were defined. The materials of the Shugnou material layer under research demonstrate the highest degree of similarity on the technical and typological level with the complexes of the early and middle stages of the Tutkaul line of the development which presents the similar tools and strategies for the primary cleavage. Accordingly, it is proposed to consider the zero-layer materials of Shugnou as the ones close in appearance to the industries of the Tutkaul line of development.