First absolute chronology of the Early Paleolithic in Central Asia

Central Asia represents a key region for our understanding of early human dispersal patterns, because it served as a migration corridor that linked the Levant and southern Caucasus with Northeast Asia. However, no Early Paleolithic sites in Central Asia are anchored with reliable age constraints, including the thick loess-paleosol sections in Tajikistan that recorded early human activities and environmental changes over multiple glacial-interglacial cycles. This lack of absolute age constraints is presently the key factor limiting our understanding of the early human dispersal history. Here, we provide a new comprehensive description and the first absolute age framework for the Early Paleolithic Karatau Culture; defined by the rich lithic assemblages found in paleosols in the Khovaling Loess Plateau (KLP), Tajikistan. Age constraints are provided through multi-method analysis of three loess-paleosol sections in the KLP, combining luminescence ages, cosmogenic ²⁶ Al- ¹⁰ Be concentrations, and magnetostratigraphic boundaries into a probabilistic inverse age-depth model. This model shows that the Karatau Culture flourished with the onset of Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 15, thrived during MIS 13 and 11, but disappeared around onset of MIS 10. We frame the archaeological occupations within local and regional ecological settings to better understand the drivers of Pleistocene human migrations.