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Living on the Edge: The Earliest Modern Human Settlement of the Armenian Highlands in Aghitu-3 Cave

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The Middle and Upper Paleolithic Archeology of the Levant and Beyond

Part of the book series: Replacement of Neanderthals by Modern Humans Series ((RNMH))

Abstract

Aghitu-3 Cave is the first stratified Upper Paleolithic (UP) cave site discovered in Armenia. The site is situated at an elevation of 1601 m in the southern Armenian Highlands and has yielded three intact archaeological horizons. The site has an excellent preservation of paleoecological archives, which allow for a comprehensive interpretation of the climate and environment at the time when the first modern humans populated the region.

Twelve geological horizons were identified, and correlate with seven archaeological layers (AH); three of these, AH III, VI and VII, yielded substantial UP assemblages. Dates of these layers range from 39 to 24,000 cal BP, so that Aghitu-3 offers a glimpse into the settlement patterns of modern humans during the early and middle UP of Armenia.

The lithic technology is based mainly on the unidirectional production of laminar blanks, with bladelets always predominating. Moreover, bladelets make up about 90% of all tool blanks. The most common lithic tool type is a bladelet with fine retouch along one lateral edge. Burins, scrapers and perforators are rare, as are cores. However, the overall tool count is high. These results suggest that the cave was used for making tools during short term stays, rather than as a basecamp. Rounding out the toolkit, bone tools from AH III include one eyed needle and two awls. These finds suggest that people fabricated clothing, nets or bags onsite, which is especially interesting when considering the high altitude of the site. The lithic raw material exploitation patterns show a clear shift from the earliest UP to later phases: whereas in AHs VII and VI local materials predominate, the spectrum broadens in AH III, showing obsidian from sources up to 200 km away.

In terms of comparison, the data from similar aged Georgian and Iranian UP sites will help in reconstructing the nature of the first modern human settlement in the southern Caucasus and Zagros. In Armenia, Aghitu-3 Cave can serve as a benchmark for understanding the early and middle UP. Full analyses of the site will make a crucial contribution to developing a frame of reference for the so-called Caucasian Upper Paleolithic.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    A blade is defined as a laminar blank with parallel sides whose length is at least twice the dimension of its width. A bladelet meets these criteria and is smaller than 10 mm in width (Floss 2012).

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Acknowledgements

We wish to thank the organizers of the second international conference on the “Replacement of Neanderthals by Modern Humans” for an interesting venue to discuss our results and a lovely stay in Hokkaido. We are grateful to several researchers for their data: Angela Bruch of the Senckenberg Research Institute in Frankfurt provided the results of pollen analyses; Max Schaefers of the University of Tübingen identified the macromammals presented here as part of a laboratory study; Varduhi Vardazaryan studied the lithic artifacts with AT and AWK within the framework of her Master’s thesis; and Lior Weissbrod of the University of Haifa analyzed the micromammalian fauna and determined paleoenvironment. Finally, the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) sponsored AT’s travel to Hokkaido, while the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities funded the excavations and research at Aghitu-3, together with the Armenian branch of the Gfoeller Fund of America Corporation and the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography of the National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Early Prehistory and Quaternary Ecology, The Institute of Prehistory, Early History and Medieval Archeology, University of Tübingen, Burgsteige 11, 72070, Tübingen, Germany

    Andreas Taller

  2. National Academy of Sciences, Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, Charents Street 15, 0025, Yerevan, Armenia

    Boris Gasparyan

  3. The Role of Culture in Early Expansions of Humans (ROCEEH), Heidelberg Academy of Science and Humanities, University of Tübingen, Rümelinstrasse 23, 72070, Tübingen, Germany

    Andrew W. Kandel

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  1. Andreas Taller
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  2. Boris Gasparyan
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Correspondence to Andreas Taller .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. The University Museum, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan

    Yoshihiro Nishiaki

  2. Research Institute, Kochi University of Technology, Kochi, Japan

    Takeru Akazawa

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Taller, A., Gasparyan, B., Kandel, A.W. (2018). Living on the Edge: The Earliest Modern Human Settlement of the Armenian Highlands in Aghitu-3 Cave. In: Nishiaki, Y., Akazawa, T. (eds) The Middle and Upper Paleolithic Archeology of the Levant and Beyond. Replacement of Neanderthals by Modern Humans Series. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-6826-3_9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-6826-3_9

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