Middle Palaeolithic human dispersal in Central Asia: new archaeological investigations in the Orkhon Valley, Mongolia

Abstract

Well-stratified Middle Palaeolithic assemblages are extremely rare in Mongolia. Initially investigated between the 1960s and 1990s, three major Middle Palaeolithic sites in the Orkhon Valley of central Mongolia yielded a large quantity of data and generated many research questions that still await answers. Re-investigation of these sites has uncovered chronostratigraphic and cultural sequences that may shed new light on human dispersal routes.