THE MOUSTERIAN
150-40 thousand BC
Aman-Kutan Cave Site
The artefacts discovered in an Aman-Kutan cave by D. N. Lev indicate the place was a
Neanderthal site. The cave is located in the western part of the Zeravshan Range, in the
Chakylkalyan area at an altitude of 1,400 m above sea level, 45 km south of Samarkand near the
lower part of the Aman-Kutan village. This is a typical solutional (karst) cave in the form of a
narrow low corridor about 1.5 m wide and 0.9 m high. The depth of the cultural layer, which
contained crushed animal bones and stone items, concentrated at the entrance, ranged from 0.25 to
1.5 m. The Mousterian people used the cave as a shelter. Fireplaces were organised in natural
depressions in calcareous tuff. 220 stone items were found in its cultural layer, including
scrapers, points, disc-shaped cores, leaf-shaped burins, as well as plates with traces of retouch.
The tools were made of quartz, diorite, quartzite and flint. No pebble items were found, which was
natural for cave sites. The palaeofauna is close to that typical for medium altitudes – the mouflon
(112 individuals), brown bear (39 individuals) and red deer (10 individuals). Striped hyaena bones
testify to the great age of this fauna. Other notable animal finds include abundant remains of
tortoises belonging to 105 individuals. The main game animals for Neanderthals inhabiting the
Aman-Kutan area were the mouflon and brown bear.
With only one palaeoanthropological find from the same period known in the entire vast region – the
burial of a child in the Teshik-Tash grotto, currently, little is known about the physical
appearance of the man. The nature of the cultural deposits and the insignificant collections of
stone tools allowed the researcher of the cave to suppose this is not a human settlement, but a
hunting camp. The geological age ranges from the late Middle to the early Late Pleistocene, which
corresponds to the period from 100,000 to 80,000 years ago. The
Aman-Kutan Cave is the oldest archaeological site in the Samarkand region.
Neanderthal site. The cave is located in the western part of the Zeravshan Range, in the
Chakylkalyan area at an altitude of 1,400 m above sea level, 45 km south of Samarkand near the
lower part of the Aman-Kutan village. This is a typical solutional (karst) cave in the form of a
narrow low corridor about 1.5 m wide and 0.9 m high. The depth of the cultural layer, which
contained crushed animal bones and stone items, concentrated at the entrance, ranged from 0.25 to
1.5 m. The Mousterian people used the cave as a shelter. Fireplaces were organised in natural
depressions in calcareous tuff. 220 stone items were found in its cultural layer, including
scrapers, points, disc-shaped cores, leaf-shaped burins, as well as plates with traces of retouch.
The tools were made of quartz, diorite, quartzite and flint. No pebble items were found, which was
natural for cave sites. The palaeofauna is close to that typical for medium altitudes – the mouflon
(112 individuals), brown bear (39 individuals) and red deer (10 individuals). Striped hyaena bones
testify to the great age of this fauna. Other notable animal finds include abundant remains of
tortoises belonging to 105 individuals. The main game animals for Neanderthals inhabiting the
Aman-Kutan area were the mouflon and brown bear.
With only one palaeoanthropological find from the same period known in the entire vast region – the
burial of a child in the Teshik-Tash grotto, currently, little is known about the physical
appearance of the man. The nature of the cultural deposits and the insignificant collections of
stone tools allowed the researcher of the cave to suppose this is not a human settlement, but a
hunting camp. The geological age ranges from the late Middle to the early Late Pleistocene, which
corresponds to the period from 100,000 to 80,000 years ago. The
Aman-Kutan Cave is the oldest archaeological site in the Samarkand region.
ERA
- Bibikov, V. I. Some remarks on the fauna from the Mousterian cave of Aman-Kutan I [Nekotoryye zamechaniya po faune iz mustyerskoy peshchery Aman-Kutan I] // Soviet Archeology. Moscow, 1958. No. 3.
- Jurakulov, M. D., Mammadov, E. D. Geology of archaeological sites on the Zeravshan: the Stone Age [Geologiya arkheologicheskikh pamyatnikov Zeravshana: kamennyy vek] // Textbook. Tashkent, 1986.
- Lev, D. N. The ancient Palaeolithic in Aman-Kutan [Drevniy paleolit v Aman-Kutane] // Proceedings of the Samarkand State University. New series. Issue 39. Samarkand, 1949.
- Lev, D. N. New data on the Palaeolithic of Uzbekistan [Novyye dannyye po paleolitu Uzbekistana] // Proceedings of the Institute of History and Archaeology, Academy of Sciences of the Uzbek SSR. Issue 7. Tashkent, 1955.
