El Paleolítico Medio en el Cáucaso Meridional: la Cueva Doble (Valle de Tsutskhvati, República de Georgia)

Abstract

This paper presents the main results obtained through a new round of archaeological excavations undertaken in Double Cave (Tsutskvati valley, Republic of Georgia), between 2002 and 2003. Stratigraphic, technological, taphonomic and pollen analyses have permitted to gather new data, complementary to those obtained in the nearby Ortvale Klde cave, on the Neanderthal communities that inhabited the Southern Caucasus. This region constitutes one of the areas in which the last members of this species survived. While the long-term fieldwork program undertaken at Ortvale Klde has furnished a complete set of dates regarding the Neanderthal occupation of this cave and the arrival of modern humans, no chronological contexts have been obtained for other similar sites located in the Caucasian region. However, the Neanderthal presence in the Tsutskhvati valley must have taken place during the same time-span proposed for Ortvale Kdle. Although nowadays Double Cave and the well-known Bronze Cave lack reliable chronological contexts, it is important to remark that these sites located in the Tsutskhvati valley are recurrently cited in the debate on the end of the Neandethals and the arrival of Homo sapiens to the Caucasus. This is why the new data presented here (last fieldwork and research were carried out in the region in the 1970s) are informative and valuable, despite chronological limitations, in order to enlarge our knowledge on this important issue of the European Prehistory.