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Hovk 1 and the Middle and Upper Paleolithic of Armenia: a preliminary framework |
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| Authors: | Pinhasi R Gasparian B Wilkinson K Bailey R Bar-Oz G Bruch A Chataigner C Hoffmann D Hovsepyan R Nahapetyan S Pike A W G Schreve D Stephens M |
| Institution: | a Department of Archaeology, University College Cork, Cork, Ireland b Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology, National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia, 375019 Charents Street, 15, Yerevan, Armenia c Departments of Archaeology, University of Winchester, Winchester, SO22 4 NR, UK d School of Geography, Oxford University Centre for the Environment, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford, OX1 3QY, UK e Laboratory of Archaeozoology, Zinman Institute of Archaeology, University of Haifa, Haifa 31905, Israel f Senckenberg Research Institute, Senckenberganlage 25, 60325 Frankfurt, Germany g Maison de l'Orient et de la Méditerranée, Université Lumière Lyon 2, 5-7 rue Raulin, 69007 Lyon, France h School of Geographical Sciences, University of Bristol, University Road, Bristol BS8 1SS, UK i Department of Cartography and Geomorphology, State University of Yerevan, 375049, Alek. Manukyan street 1, Yerevan, Armenia j Department of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Bristol. 43 Woodland Road Bristol, BS8 1UU, UK k Department of Geography, Royal Holloway, University of London, Egham, Surrey, TW20 0EX, UK l School of Archaeology and Ancient History, University Road, Leicester, LE1 7RH, UK |
| Abstract: | The territory of present day Armenia is a geographic contact zone between the Near East and the northern Caucasus. Armenian Middle and Upper Paleolithic records are both few and patchy as a result of the historical paucity of systematic archaeological research in the country. Consequently, it is currently difficult to correlate the Armenian Middle and Upper Paleolithic records with those from other neighboring regions. We present new archaeological and chronometric data (luminescence, U-Th, and 14C) from our ongoing research at Hovk 1 Cave in northeast Armenia. We discuss in particular two activity phases in Hovk 1 Cave for which we have outline chronometric data: (1) an early Middle Paleolithic occupational phase, dated by optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) to 104 ± 9.8 ka BPOSL; and (2) a Paleolithic occupational phase characterized by microlithic flakes dated by AMS 14C to 39,109 ± 1,324 calibrated years BPHulu. The two phases are separated by a hiatus in hominin occupation corresponding to MIS 4 and an episode in early MIS 3. These chronometric data, taken together with the preliminary paleoenvironmental reconstruction of the Hovk 1 Cave and environment, suggest that these activity phases represent short-lived and seasonal use of the cave presumably by small groups of hunters during episodes of mild climate. Neither tool manufacture nor butchery appears to have taken place within the cave, and consequently, the archaeological record included, for the most part, finished tools and blanks. We address the chronology and techno-typological aspects of Hovk 1 lithics in relation to: (1) the Paleolithic records of Armenia, and (2) the broader interregional context of early Middle Paleolithic hominin occupation and the Middle-Upper Paleolithic transition in the Caucasus. |
| Keywords: | Neandertals Chronology Middle-Upper Paleolithic transition Southern Caucasus Levallois Paleoenvironment |
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