Were They Modern Humans? The Problem of the Initial Upper Palaeolithic in West Central Asia

The Initial Upper Palaeolithic (IUP) is a term describing lithic assemblages dated roughly to 50–40 kya in the Near East, Central Europe and North-Eastern Asia, which show traits of the emergence of blade technology, traditionally associated with the expansion of modern human groups.

Several sites with IUP traits have also been recently recognised in West Central Asia (Uzbekistan and Tajikistan), but astonishingly they date to a period between 77 and 43 kya (Obi-Rakhmat, Khudji, Katta Sai 2, Khodjakent, Kuksaray 2, Ertash Sai 2).

Through this project, we aim to answer the question of whether there were indeed modern human groups who lived in Western Central Asia at this time and left behind lithic assemblages with IUP traits. This would make them the earliest known modern human migration waves into Eurasia.

Alternatively, these assemblages were produced by Neanderthals or even Denisovans, who inhabited Central Asia prior to modern human expansion. This would question the widely repeated hypothesis of a relationship between blade technology and modern human groups.

To answer the question, we will study new cave sites in the region to collect palaeoecological, zooarchaeological and palaeoanthropological data.

Using a multidisciplinary approach, we plan to reveal not only who made these IUP assemblages, but also study their subsistence strategies and settlement continuity between 77 and 43 kya within the changing palaeoenvironmental conditions.By answering this question, we will either confirm an early modern human migration to Eurasia and challenge the current paradigm of Euro-Levantine blade technology emergence, or alternatively challenge the other major paradigm of a direct relationship between blade technology emergence with modern human expansion.

In either case, we will clarify to what extent the phenomena we call the Upper Palaeolithic “revolution” was driven solely by modern humans, and whether it was stimulated by interactions with Neanderthals and/or Den