Introduction One of the fundamental problems of modern archaeology is the transition from the Middle to the Upper Paleolithic, the origin of the technological foundations of primary splitting and the dynamics of industry at the early stage of the Upper Paleolithic. In Asia, the transition from the Middle to the Upper Paleolithic is most fully characterized by studies of multilayered and well-stratified Paleolithic sites in the Gorny Altai (Archeologiya..., 1998). In Central Asia, the territory of Mongolia is the most studied; here, on the Orkhon River, culture-containing layers of the final stage of the Middle Paleolithic and early stage of the Upper Paleolithic were studied (Derevyanko, Nikolaev, and Petrin, 1992; Derevyanko and Petrin, 1990). Among stratified localities in Mongolia, the third kulyu-bearing horizon of Tsagan Agui Cave belongs to the early Upper Paleolithic stage (Derevyanko et al., 2000). The transition from the Middle to Upper Paleolithic in Gorny Altai and Mongolia has much in common (Derevyanko, 2005b). The Middle Paleolithic industries of Mongolia and Southern Siberia demonstrate the same principles of primary and secondary stone processing. At the same time, the specific ecological conditions in each region at the beginning and middle of the Upper Pleistocene also led to differences in adaptation strategies, which is reflected in the types This work was supported by grants from the Russian Foundation for Scientific Research (N 06-01-00527a), the Program of Fundamental Research of the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences " Adaptation of Peoples and Cultures to changes in the natural environment, social and technological transformations "(project 1.6: "Evolution of behavioral and adaptive systems of ancient man during the transition from the Middle to Upper Paleolithic in Central Asia").Russian Federation), grant of integration projects of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences for Basic Research in the humanities (No. 73 ... Read more