东北高加索早更新世遗址调查项目自2003年启动以来，在达吉斯坦的内陆山地获得到了最重要的发现，而此前在该地质条件下，不见任何关于旧石器时代遗址考古发现的信息。在对北高加索东部地区（达吉斯坦中部，达吉斯坦共和国阿库沙地区）超过十年的调查之后，我们目前正在研究由八层早更新世堆积形成的阿尼卡-穆开-格加拉苏遗址群，而已经揭露出来有包含物的文化层的数量近百。

穆开遗址正在发掘之中，其文化层堆积之厚在早更新世考古遗址中前所未见，如穆开2号遗址，堆积厚度为73米。这些地层堆积包含有34个早更新世文化层，由下层向上层一直延续，没有断层，时间跨度从不晚于距今195万年至距今80万年。

达吉斯坦中部地区奥杜威文化遗址的年代判定综合了多个学科的研究数据，包括电子自旋共振年代测定法、地质学、地形学、古土壤学、古地磁研究、生物地层学、孢粉学和植物学。

来自不同学科的多元研究材料证明这些遗址的断代结果是可信的。而多个实验室测试结果的综合分析，使得获取早更新世时期东北高加索地区文化和自然环境发展变化的全局和细节信息成为可能。

一些文化层的发掘面积大，出土石器丰富，可以进行细致的类型学分析。相关的类型学分析又反过来为这些遗址出土石器的技术与类型研究、共性与个性研究提供了基础。

部分特定文化层的发掘面积达到了一个相当宽广的范围，如穆开2号遗址编号80层位的调查面积已超过44平方米，穆开2a号遗址编号2013-1和2013-2层位的面积与之不相上下。阿尼卡1号遗址下部层位的开口面积也超过30平方米。

该区域不同地形区的遗址在地质特征方面也不一样，由此，对它们进行文化和历史重建的可能性和还原程度各有所别。未遭破坏的“居住面”原址为达吉斯坦中部地区奥杜威文化遗址提供了功能分类的可能。如屠宰遗址（或储肉地点）位于平地，容易辨认，其出现也意味着其他功用遗址的存在，如营地遗址。

就一般的类型和技术特征而言，达吉斯坦遗址制石业与东非奥杜威峡谷的典型奥杜威文化基本相似。在距今约200万到80万年的时间范围内，达吉斯坦中部奥杜威文化遗址发现的石器主要为砍砸器，两面器在调查中不见踪影。但两面加工的元素，以及罕见的具备两面加工倾向的器物（原始两面器、局部两面器）在该地区上层堆积中有所发现，所对应的古地磁年代为贾拉米洛极性亚时末期至布容-松山极性时分界，即距今约99万至80万年。

虽然达吉斯坦奥杜威文化遗址的制石业并没有超出一般早更新世文化的范畴，而成为一种地方变体，其器物仍然显示出一些特别之处，如相对多样的斫器类型和堇青云母工具的出现，但它们并没有超出当地传统的类型框架。

在研究相对充分的穆开遗址，石器制作技术的进化在地层上由下而上清晰可见，可概括如下：

1、堆积顶部大量石器的制作并不限于沿着原始石核的轮廓进行敲击，或仅用砍和斫的方式进行处理。剥片技术开始使用，虽还没有用来制作新的工具类型（如两面器），但原始两面器由此出现。

2、堆积顶部可见大量由石核剥制的大石片。但值得注意的是，只有砍砸器这种奥杜威工业的典型石器是直接由石核打制而来。

3、在阿尼卡-穆开遗址堆积的形成期，不见由石片制作的小型工具范围的扩大及数量的增长。

学界对于人类最早活动于欧亚西部的时间和线路已有一定认识，在这一过程中北高加索和内高加索地区的位置和角色显然十分重要。达吉斯坦中部地区的材料显示，人类在北高加索地区的活动始于拜伯-多瑙间冰期（距今约230万-210万年），或至少不晚于这一时期。欧亚殖民的线路之一是沿着里海西岸一直迁移，而东欧平原大部分地区文化历史发展的源头都可追溯至第一批穿过里海走廊的先民。里海西线曾一度是通往东欧和西北亚的必经之路和天然庇护所，在很长一段时间内为过往的人们提供必需的资源。东北高加索地区，尤其是达吉斯坦腹地，成为奥杜威时期的一个文化集聚地，古代文化得以在一段相当长的时期内发展传承。

湿暖和干暖气候的间歇性交替，是东北高加索地区的重要物候特征。在一些相关遗址内，前者发生在上新世-早更新世冰期，后者发生在间冰期。而在间冰期，冰雪融化导致里海水面上升，侵入陆地，今天的达吉斯坦中部地区当时很可能成为一片沼泽。典型的稀树草原是早更新世其他时期的特征。

上述研究项目由俄罗斯科学院考古研究所、历史研究所和达吉斯坦科学中心考古与民族学部联合开展，实验室检测分析和自然科学材料的鉴定由俄罗斯科学院地理研究所、地质研究所、古生物研究所、动物研究所和莫斯科大学执行。部分材料的获取得到俄罗斯基础研究基金会的资助。

In 2003 target searches for early Pleistocene sites in the Northeast Caucasus was started for the first time. The greatest effect in these works was achieved in the mountain region of internal Dagestan. Prior to these studies there was no information on any Palaeolithic sites here with archaeological finds in the geological context. Currently, after more than ten years of research in the eastern part of the North Caucasus (Central Dagestan; Akusha District of the Republic of Dagestan), the Ainikab-Muhkai-Gegalashur group consisting of eight multilayer Early Pleistocene sites is being studied. The total number of the revealed cultural layers of the objects comes close to a hundred.

The Muhkai sites, which are being excavated at the present time, demonstrate the thickness of section that is unprecedented for the archaeological sites of the Early Pleistocene. At the site of Muhkai 2 the thickness of the section, for instance, is 73 meters. These geological member contain 34 Early Paleolithic cultural layers, distributed from the bottom upwards throughout the whole section. The total of all cultural layers of the site covers the chronological range from not later than 1.95 Ma to 0.8 Ma.

Geochronology of the Oldowan sites of Central Dagestan is based on the data of multidisciplinary researches involving possibilities of ESR dating method, geology, geomorphology, paleopedology, paleomagnetic studies, biostratigraphy, palynology, and phytology.

The presence of diverse materials of multidisciplinary research makes the dating of the sites evidential. Synthesis of the results of various laboratory tests makes it possible to obtain a complete and in many respects detailed picture of the development of the culture and natural environment in the region of the North-East Caucasus throughout the Early Pleistocene.

The fact that some cultural layers were excavated over a large area and provided with numerous collections of stone tools enables in some cases to conduct a detailed typological analysis. The results of the latter, in its turn, serve as a ground for well-reasoned conclusions of technical and typological aspects of stone tools of the studied sites, their common features and specific manifestations.

Specific cultural layers have been excavated over a relatively wide area. For example, layer 80 of the site of Muhkai 2 has been investigated over the area of 44 square meters. The area of layers 2013-1 and 2013-2 of the site of Muhkai 2a is nearly the same. The area of opening of the lower layers at the site of Ainikab 1 exceeds 30 square meters.

The sites of different geomorphological zones of the territory under consideration have various geological characteristics and essentially differ from each other in terms of informativeness and opportunities for cultural and historical reconstructions. The occurrence of the sites in situ with undestroyed “habitation surfaces” makes it possible to establish a functional type of the Oldowan sites of Central Dagestan. Butchery and kill sites (and/or “meat gathering”? places) are distinguished on reasonable grounds and this fact points at the possible existence of objects for other purposes, for example, base camp sites, among the Oldowan sites of this region.

In terms of general typological and technological characteristics the industry of Dagestan sites reveals fundamental similarity with the data of the classic Oldowan of the Olduvai Gorge in East Africa. During the interval from ca. 2 to 0.8 Ma the major categories of tools of the Oldowan sites of Central Dagestan were the chopper and the pick. The biface, in any of its typological terms, was not revealed in the industry under investigation. Elements of bifacial processing and emergence of rare pieces gravitating towards bifaces (protobifaces, partial bifaces) were registered in the upper layers of the total thickness of the deposits, corresponding to the time interval from the end of the Jaramillo paleomagnetic episode to the Brunhes-Matuyama boundary, i.e. ca. 0,99 Ma – 0.8 Ma.

In this way the studied industry does not have the features required to distinguish it as a specific regional variety of the Early Pleistocene culture. But the stone tools of the Oldowan sites of Dagestan demonstrate some peculiarities. For example, relative multiplicity of the pick category or the presence of the expressive tools – gigantolites. However, these factors do not change the “typological image” of the industry.

In the sections of relatively well studied Muhkai sites the evolution of the industry is registered from the lower to upper layers. Its visible manifestations may be defined as follows:

1. at the top of the sections the manufacturing of massive tools was not limited to knapping along the contour of the primary blank and using only “chopping” and sharpening types of treatment. The use of the technique of flat working began but it had not led to the emergence of new types of tools (e.g., bifaces) yet, though contributed to the rise of protobifaces;
2. the use of large massive flake in the function of a blank is registered at the top of the deposits of the Muhkai sites. It is noteworthy, however, that only those types of tools, which are typical of the Oldowan industry – the chopper and the pick – were manufactured from these blanks;
3. the evolution in expanding the range of small tools on flakes and their quantitative representation is not observed within the period of formation of the deposits of the Ainikab-Muhkai sites.

On the basis of specific sources the problem of the ways and time of the initial human occupation of West Eurasia is considered, and the role and place of the North Caucasus and Ciscaucasia in this process is determined. According to the materials from Central Dagestan the initial colonization of the North Caucasus occurred during the Biber-Danube interglacial stage (ca. 2.3 – 2.1 Ma) or, at least, not later than this time. One of the ways of the original colonization of Eurasia ran along the western coast of the Caspian Sea. On a large part of the East European Plain the outset of the progressive development of the culture and the historical process in whole was connected with the penetration here of the first human groups through the “Caspian corridor”. The West-Caspian way of the initial occupation was at once a transit route for moving towards Eastern Europe and North-West Asia, and a natural refuge, which in the case of need provided people with necessary resources during a very long period of time. The North-East Caucasus and, in particular, Inner Dagestan, became a sort of cultural reservoir of the Oldowan epoch, where the ancient culture found the necessary conditions for a very long existence in its traditional form.

The environmental conditions in the North-East Caucasus were characterized by rhythmic alternation from wet and relatively warm to warm and relatively dry climate. In the sections of the specified sites the former chronologically coincide with the stages of the Pliocene-Early Pleistocene glaciations, and the latter – with the interstadials. Accordingly, during the interstadial intervals, corresponding to transgressions of the Caspian Sea, the landscapes close to marsh most probably began to spread over the territory of today’s Central Dagestan.

Conditions with the characteristics typical of savanna were peculiar to the other periods of the Early Pleistocene. The studies discussed above were carried out at the Institute of Archaeology of the RAS and the Institute of History, Archeology and Ethnography of the Dagestan Scientific Center of the RAS (Russian Academy of Sciences). Laboratory investigations and identifications of the natural science materials were conducted at the Institute of Geography of the RAS, Geological Institute of the RAS, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Paleontological Institute of the RAS, and Zoological Institute of the RAS. A part of tyhe included materials was obtained owing to funding by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research.