Kalavan-2 (North of Lake Sevan, Armenia): A New Late Middle Paleolithic Site in the Lesser Caucasus

The Upper Palaeolithic site of Kalavan 1 (Armenia): An Epigravettian settlement in the Lesser Caucasus

“…Kalavan 1 was discovered by Ruben Ghukasyan in 2004 after earthworks were carried out during the creation of a forest track. The first archaeological investigations in the form of trial trenches were carried out in 2005 by an ArmenianeFrench team led by B. Gasparyan (Institute of Archaeology, Yerevan) and C. Chataigner ('Caucasus' mission, France;Liagre et al, 2009;Ghukasyan et al, 2011). The trenches dug in 2005 and 2006 revealed the site's archaeological potential with the discovery and excavation of an early Bronze Age necropolis (Kuro-Arax culture) as well as occupations of the Upper Palaeolithic (Liagre et al, 2009).…”

“…The trenches dug in 2005 and 2006 revealed the site's archaeological potential with the discovery and excavation of an early Bronze Age necropolis (Kuro-Arax culture) as well as occupations of the Upper Palaeolithic (Liagre et al, 2009). In the same valley, a few hundred metres away from Kalavan 1, trenches dug on a spur at the edge of the Barepat and one of its tributaries brought to light an important stratigraphic sequence of the Middle Palaeolithic (MP) (Kalavan 2; Ghukasyan et al, 2011). Since the discovery of the site in 2005 and the preliminary excavation of the early Bronze Age tombs, about 40 m 2 of the Epigravettian occupation has been explored.…”

Paleolithic occupations of the Göllü Dağ, Central Anatolia, Turkey

“…The presence of numerous Paleolithic artifacts on Gö llü Dag provides evidence of hominin adaptations to moderately high elevations and continental climatic conditions. The basal level for the survey area is approximately 1400 m, and the average elevation for Paleolithic sites recorded during the survey is just over 1600 m. Paleolithic artifacts were collected from elevations as high as 2000 m. What remains to be seen is whether the early Paleolithic occupations were confined to interglacial periods sites (e.g., Ghukasyan et al 2011) or whether hominins continued to use the area during harsher glacial periods.…”

The diversity of Late Pleistocene and Holocene wild ungulates and kites structures in Armenia

“…Meanwhile, in Georgia, hunting activities were mainly focused on migratory artiodactyls, especially the wild Caucasian tur (at high altitude sites) and/or bison/aurochs (at low altitude sites) during the Middle and Upper Paleolithic (Adler et al, 2006;Ghukasyan et al, 2011;Bar-Yosef et al, 2011;Bar Oz et al, 2012;Chataigner et al, 2012;Montoya et al, 2013). Similar strategies of specialized hunting focusing on one species have been discovered at a very few sites, essentially in caves (Nioradze and Otte, 2000;Adler et al, 2004Adler et al, , 2006Meshveliani et al, 2004Meshveliani et al, , 2007Nioradze, 2006;BarOz et al, 2008BarOz et al, , 2012.…”