Long before modern humans were thought to have arrived in Eurasia, advanced stone tool technologies were already present in Central Asia. Recent discoveries in Uzbekistan and Tajikistan reveal that blade tools resembling those of the Initial Upper Palaeolithic (IUP) date back as far as 70 000 years, which is prior to what was expected. This raises a crucial question: did modern humans reach the region earlier than previously believed, or did Neanderthals or Denisovans develop similar techniques independently? Key responsibilities: participation in excavations and surface surveys at high-mountain cave sites; mapping of stone raw materials in the studied region of the western Tien Shan and Pamir-Alai; creation of a reference database of available stone raw materials in the region; raw material analysis (using selected analytical methods) of stone artefacts, including quartzite, found at the studied sites; provenance analysis of stone materials; interpretation of the obtained results in the context of raw material procurement in the region.
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