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The Techno-typological and 3D-GM Analysis of Hatis-1: a Late Acheulian Open-Air Site on the Hrazdan-Kotayk Plateau, Armenia

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Abstract

Hatis-1 is a Lower Paleolithic open-air site on the Hrazdan-Kotayk Plateau of central Armenia. Although the site was tested in the 1980s, little has been published regarding the material. Consequently, we reinvestigated the site by expanding the original test pit to better understand the stratigraphy and recover a new sample of artifacts. As a result, more than 300 obsidian artifacts were recovered from colluvial deposits found close to primary obsidian outcrops, which sourcing data show to be the exclusive areas of toolstone procurement used by the inhabitants. The recovered assemblages are Late Acheulian in character and are largely homogenous across strata in terms of techno-typology. Hatis-1 records the use of large flakes for production of cores and tools indicative of the Large Flake Acheulian, but also contains limited evidence for simple prepared cores and the recycling of bifaces as cores, suggesting expansion of the technological repertoire of hominins in this region during the Late Acheulian. The in-depth study of large cutting tools presented here reveals that differences in the shape and typology of these tools are largely determined by different production strategies. While samples suitable for direct chronometric dates were not recovered, constraining geological factors suggest this material was deposited after c.700/480 ka. This study expands our understanding of the Late Acheulian and further contextualizes the later Lower–Middle Paleolithic technological transition in the region. In a broader sense, our interpretation of the techno-typological patterns at Hatis-1 expands the current understanding of geographical and chronological variation in the Acheulian record.

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Data availability

Available on Open Science Framework at https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/5JV9X or upon request.

Code availability

Available upon request.

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Acknowledgements

The research reported here was possible thanks to funds provided to D.S. Adler by the Norian Armenian Programs Committee (University of Connecticut) and two Large Faculty Grants (University of Connecticut). Logistical support for the work at Hatis-1 was provided by the Goefeller Foundation. The authors would like to thank the 2016–2017 Hrazdan Gorge Palaeolithic project participants and the undergraduate field school students from the University of Connecticut, Department of Anthropology’s Archaeological Field School in Armenian Prehistory. We would also like to thank the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Armenia and Pavel Avesetyan, Director of the institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, National Academy of Sciences Armenia, for continued support of our archaeological work. Finally, we would like to thank Huw Groucutt, two anonymous reviewers, and the Editor in Chief for their helpful comments and insights that helped improve the paper.

Funding

Financial support for the Hrazdan Gorge Palaeolithic Project and renewed excavations at Hatis-1 was provided to D.S. Adler by the Norian Armenian Programs Committee (University of Connecticut) and two Large Faculty Grants (University of Connecticut).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anthropology, Old World Archaeology Program, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, USA

    Jayson P. Gill & Daniel S. Adler

  2. Department of World Archaeology, Humans Origins Group, Leiden University, Leiden, Netherlands

    Yannick Raczynski-Henk

  3. Council On Archaeological Studies, Department of Anthropology, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA

    Ellery Frahm

  4. Department of Geography, King’s College London, London, UK

    Jennifer E. Sherriff

  5. Department of Archaeology, Anthropology and Geography, University of Winchester, Winchester, UK

    Keith N. Wilkinson

  6. Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, National Academy of Sciences, Yerevan, Armenia

    Boris Gasparyan

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Correspondence to Jayson P. Gill.

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41982_2021_105_MOESM1_ESM.tif

Fig. S1 Loadings plot for the first two principal components from the regular PCA using variables from WEAP technological analysis of LCTs organized into their Bordian types. The variables are listed at the bottom and divided into categories based on tool shaping, tip shaping, medial shaping, and proximal shaping. Variables with a larger effect on PC1 and PC2 are highlighted in yellow. Includes LCTs from both renewed work and original excavation (assemblages B and D)

Supplementary file1 (TIF 132564 KB)

41982_2021_105_MOESM2_ESM.tif

Fig. S2 Loadings plot for the first two principal components from the between-group PCA using variables from WEAP technological analysis of LCTs organized into their Bordian types. The variables are listed at the bottom and divided into categories based on tool shaping, tip shaping, medial shaping, and proximal shaping. Variables with a larger effect on PC1 and PC2 are highlighted in yellow. Includes LCTs from both renewed work and original excavation (assemblages B and D)

Supplementary file2 (TIF 126582 KB)

Table S1 Hatis-1 pXRF artifact dataset

Supplementary file3 (XLSX 36 KB)

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Gill, J.P., Adler, D.S., Raczynski-Henk, Y. et al. The Techno-typological and 3D-GM Analysis of Hatis-1: a Late Acheulian Open-Air Site on the Hrazdan-Kotayk Plateau, Armenia. J Paleo Arch 4, 29 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41982-021-00105-5

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