Faunal Exploitation Patterns along the Southern Slopes of the Caucasus during the Late Middle and Early Upper Palaeolithic

Occupying an intermediate position between Africa, Europe, and Asia, the southern Caucasus has represented a northern geographic terminus for major expansions and migrations of human populations, both Archaic and Modern, for millennia. As such, the southern Caucasus provides an opportunity to examine human behavioral variability within a marginal area that periodically served as a refuge during the Palaeolithic. However, this stated marginality is only relevant in terms of geographic location, with human mobility being largely thwarted by the combined effects of the Caucasus Mountains to the north, the Black Sea to the west, and the Caspian Sea to the east....