Ekaterina V. Doronicheva*, Marianna A. Kulkova**

 *Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (the Kunstkamera) RAS, St. Petersburg (edoronicheva@hotmail.ru)

**Herzen State Pedagogical University of Russia, St. Petersburg (kulkova@mail.ru)

Key words: raw material strategies, raw materials, petroarchaeology, Middle Paleolithic, Neanderthals, Northwestern Caucasus.

Petroarchaeology is a special discipline within archaeology, which studies raw material sources and variability, and its procurement and exploitation by hominids (so called “raw material strategies”) in the Paleolithic. Modern methodology of raw material study consists of several steps, including necessary field surveys of raw material outcrops and the study of petrography, mineralogical and geochemical compositions of raw material samples from occupations and outcrops. The authors applied this methodology for the study of Eastern Micoquian industries in the Northwestern Caucasus. Based on the analysis, we have drawn conclusions of peculiarities of settlement organization, raw material strategies, territoriality, mobility, cultural contacts and habitation areas of the Neanderthals in the Middle Paleolithic of this region. The paper represents the main analytical results of the research.