New Epipalaeolithic Sites in the Southeastern Black Sea Area and a Question About the Marine Network of Lunates With Bipolar Retouched Arcs Makers

Abstract

New finds at the sites of Koskarlı and Kaledere caves near Trabzon have shown a connection between these sites and finds of bipolar retouched lunates. Such lunates are known from the Near East (Late Natufian Culture), Antalya and Cappadocia (Karain B сulture), the east coast of the Aegean Sea, Lemnos Island, the Sea of Marmara, and the Crimea. All known sites with lunates are associated with the Late Pleistocene. A study of the sites of Koskarlı and Kaledere has shown that the technology of bipolar retouched lunates production also spread to the southeastern Black Sea region. Finds from the Trabzon caves have led to a re-evaluation of several sites in western Georgia where lunates of this type have also been found. All the sites were located at a short distance from the seacoast. This circumstance suggests that in the second half of the XIII-XI millennium B.C. there was a maritime cultural and historical area that was the result of migratory activity. The center of the resettlement was the Antalya region. The migration of the carriers of this industry preceded the beginning of the neolithization process in the coastal areas of the four seas. © 2023 Institute of Cultural Heritage of the Academy of Sciences of Moldova. All rights reserved.