Hizri A. Amirkhanov
Institute of Archaeology RAS, Moscow (amirkhanov@rambler.ru)

Key words: Northeast Caucasus, Acheulian, handaxes, cultural-chronological groups

The paper deals with the temporal evolution of forms of Acheulian bifaces, predominantly handaxes, from the Northeast Caucasus. Four cultural-chronological groups corresponding to certain subdivisions, i.e. Upper Eopleistocene, Baku, Singil, and Khazar, of the local stratigraphic Pleistocene pattern are distinguished. It appears that the evolution of handaxes follows the tendencies common to both Europe and Asia but differing noticeably from those of Africa.