Reconstruction of the Archaeological Landscape

of the Caspian Sea at the end of Upper Pleistocene and Holocene

Abstract

Archaeological findings support an assertion that, in the late Pleistocene, the southern and western shores of the Caspian Sea were inhabited by people. Until now, settlements of late Upper Paleolithic-Mesolithic periods have mostly been found in Gobustan (Azerbaijan), in the plain of Mazandaran (Iran), and in the mountainous part of Dagestan (the North Caucasus). Artefacts of the Upper Paleolithic-Mesolithic periods from the southern and western shores of the Caspian Sea have revealed a connection between them. The Mesolithic artefacts from the south-west shore of the Caspian Sea can be identified as a common culture from the Mesolithic period. As likely as not, the emergence of archaeological sites as a common culture on the shore of the Caspian Sea was influenced by environmental factors during the late Pleistocene-early Holocene.