Pages: 322-337

In 1961, 1963-64, 1975 and 1980 in the central part of Ingushetia, south from the Sunjenskiy ridge, there was found and studied a group of the Middle Palaeolithic occurrences located near the villages of Gamurzievo, Nasir-kort, Ekajevo and Barsuki. All the localities are characterized by predominance of andesite raw material, similar techniques of primary knapping including the Levallois blade and flakе technologies, extreme core reduction and a limited toolkit dominated by simple side-scrapers. Judging by technological and morphological analysis of two larger collections from Gamurzievo and Nasir-kort, these localities might be defined as small sites-workshops belonging likely to the same industrial tradition. The lithic assemblages of Ingushetia resemble Levallois-oriented andesitic industries found in the neighboring districts of the Central Caucasus, namely in North Ossety (cave site of Myshtylagty-lagat, occurrences of Lysaya gora, Redant I, Zamankul, Stary Batakojurt) and in South Ossety (several occurrences near Tskhinvali and Djava). The North and South Osseties are divided there with a lower part of the Principal watershed range where a number of quite surmountable passes are known. The latter are believed to be even more available for Palaeolithic humans because of a lesser rise of the Caucasus mountains in Pleistocene. Given the mentioned assemblages sharing some special traits are located on both slopes of the central part of the Great Caucasus, one may suppose existence there of a particular industrial group as well as a possibility of trans-caucasian cultural relations and migrations at least in the Middle Palaeolithic.