Mechanical properties of lithic raw materials from Kazakhstan: Comparing chert, shale, and porphyry.

The study of lithic raw material quality has become one of the major interpretive tools to investigate the raw material selection behaviour and its influence to the knapping technology. In order to make objective assessments of raw material quality, we need to measure their mechanical properties (e.g.

Correction: Finding karstic caves and rockshelters in the Inner Asian mountain corridor using predictive modelling and field survey.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.

Finding karstic caves and rockshelters in the Inner Asian mountain corridor using predictive modelling and field survey.

The area of the Inner Asian Mountain Corridor (IAMC) follows the foothills and piedmont zones around the northern limits of Asia's interior mountains, connecting two important areas for human evolution: the Fergana valley and the Siberian Altai. Prior research has suggested the IAMC may have provided an area of connected refugia from harsh climates during the Pleistocene. To date, this region contains very few secure, dateable Pleistocene sites, but its widely available carbonate units present an opportunity for discovering cave sites, which generally preserve longer sequences and organic remains.