Occupying Cave-Sites: A Case Study from Azokh 1 Cave (Southern Caucasus)

Asryan, Lena; Ollé, Andreu; Moloney, Norah; King, Tania

doi:10.1007/978-3-030-27403-0_7

Cited by 3 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 51 publications

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“…The site is also known as Azykh Cave. It is located in the Ishkhanaget river valley, Southern Caucasus (39° 37′ 15″ N; 46° 59′ 32″ E) (Asryan et al 2020). It is an important site for the understanding of human evolution in its archaeological, palaeontological, environmental and ecological context (Fernández-Jalvo et al 2016b).…”

Section: Azokh Cave Systemmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Sediment Sequence 2: contains Units V to I. The new excavations focus on these units; all of them present an archaeological record, with an age range from the Middle (MIS 9-8) to the Late Pleistocene (MIS 5) (Units V to II), with some Holocene sediments at the top (Unit I) (Fernández-Jalvo et al 2010, 2016bMurray et al 2010;Asryan 2015;Asryan et al 2017Asryan et al , 2020.…”

Section: Azokhmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…According to Asryan et al (2020), the lithic artifacts from this unit include a relatively high presence of retouched flakes and flake fragments, as well as a few cores. There are no unknapped cobbles/pebbles or large tools (bifaces, choppers, chopping tools).…”

Section: Unit Vmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Lithic artifacts were studied by Asryan et al (2015Asryan et al ( , 2020, showing that the operative chain of different raw materials is based primarily on knapping products, including flakes, flake fragments and broken flakes. Levallois technology clearly dominates the core assemblage and knapping products.…”

Section: Unit IImentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In summary, Azokh Cave is an important site for several reasons: (1) it is located on the migration route through the Caucasus used by hominins and fauna at the crossroads between Africa, Europe and Asia; (2) the site was occupied by three hominin species (documented by human remains and lithic artifacts): H. heidelbergensis (Azokh 1 Unit V) (Fernández-Jalvo et al 2010), H. neanderthalensis (Azokh 1 Unit II) and H. sapiens (Azokh 2 and 5) (Fernández-Jalvo et al 2016b); (3) it is a site that has been well studied using a multidisciplinary approach (Fernández-Jalvo et al 2016c) including the study of lithic assemblages (Asryan 2015;Asryan et al 2017Asryan et al , 2020 as well as of geology, geomorphology (Murray et al 2016), taphonomy (Andrews et al 2016;Marin-Monfort et al 2016), zooarchaeology, palaeontology (Blain 2016;Parfitt 2016;Van der Made et al 2016) and anthracology (Allué 2016).…”

Section: Unit Imentioning

confidence: 99%

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Palaeoecological reconstructions of the Middle to Late Pleistocene occupations in the Southern Caucasus using rodent assemblages

Rey-Rodríguez

López‐García

Stoetzel

et al. 2022

Archaeol Anthropol Sci

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Located at the crossroads between Africa, Europe and Asia, the Southern Caucasus is a prime location to study occupations by H. heidelbergensis, H. neanderthalensis and anatomically modern humans. Azokh Cave is an important site for the understanding of human evolution in its archaeological, palaeontological, environmental and ecological context. The main objective of this work is to use rodents to infer the climatic and environmental conditions that prevailed during the formation of the site. The small-mammal remains come from the archaeological excavation campaigns carried out in Azokh 1 in 2003, 2005, 2014, 2015 and 2018; they are from Unit V, Units III–IV and Unit II. The small-mammal assemblage is composed of at least 13 taxa: seven arvicoline, two cricetine, two gerbilline, one dipodid and one murine species. Units III–IV do not yield enough material to draw palaeoclimatic inferences. The palaeoclimatic conditions for Units V and II, ascertained by means of the bioclimatic model, suggest temperatures and precipitation similar to nowadays; the climate seems to be relatively warm-temperate in both units. The palaeoenvironmental reconstruction by means of habitat weighting points to an environment mainly composed of desert and steppe habitats, as well as portions of grassland and forest. This interpretation differs from that inferred from the large-mammal and archaeobotanical data, which indicate a woodland environment. These differences could be explained by the origin of the accumulation. There was no evidence of a major palaeoenvironmental or palaeoclimatic change between the Middle and Late Pleistocene layers, indicating favourable conditions throughout the study period.

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Section: Azokh Cave Systemmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Azokhmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Unit Vmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Unit IImentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Unit Imentioning

confidence: 99%

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Palaeoecological reconstructions of the Middle to Late Pleistocene occupations in the Southern Caucasus using rodent assemblages

Rey-Rodríguez

López‐García

Stoetzel

et al. 2022

Archaeol Anthropol Sci

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Back to base: re-thinking variations in settlement and mobility behaviors in the Levantine Late Middle Paleolithic as seen from Shovakh Cave

Malinsky-Buller

Ekshtain

Munro

et al. 2021

Archaeol Anthropol Sci

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Archaeological evidence for two culture diverse Neanderthal populations in the North Caucasus and contacts between them

Doronicheva¹,

Golovanova²,

Doronichev³

et al. 2023

PLoS ONE

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Neanderthals were widespread during the Middle Palaeolithic (MP) across Europe and Asia, including the Caucasus Mountains. Occupying the border between eastern Europe and West Asia, the Caucasus is important region regarding the Neanderthal occupation of Eurasia. On current radiometric estimates, the MP is represented in the Caucasus between about 260–210 ka and about 40 ka. Archaeological record indicates that several culture diverse MP hominin populations inhabited the Caucasus, but the region complex population history during this period remains poorly understood. In this paper, we identify for the first time the archaeological evidence indicating contacts between two culture diverse MP Neanderthal populations in the North Caucasus and discuss the nature of these contacts. Basing on the lithic assemblages that we excavated at Mezmaiskaya cave in the north-western Caucasus (Kuban River basin) and Saradj-Chuko grotto in the north-central Caucasus (Terek River basin), dating from MIS 5 to MIS 3, and comparative data from other MP sites in the Caucasus, we identify two large cultural regions that existed during the late MP in the North Caucasus. The distinctive toolkits and stone knapping technologies indicate that the MP assemblages from Mezmaiskaya cave and other sites in the west of North Caucasus represent a Caucasian variant of the Eastern Micoquian industry that was wide spread in central and eastern Europe, while the assemblages from Saradj-Chuko Grotto and other sites in the east of North Caucasus closely resemble the Zagros Mousterian industry that was wide spread in the Armenian Highlands, Lesser Caucasus and Zagros Mountains. The archaeological evidence implies that two culture diverse populations of Neanderthals settled the North Caucasus during the Late Pleistocene from two various source regions: from the Armenian Highlands and Lesser Caucasus along the Caspian Sea coast, and from Russian plain along the Sea of Azov coast.

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Occupying Cave-Sites: A Case Study from Azokh 1 Cave (Southern Caucasus)

Cited by 3 publications

References 51 publications

Palaeoecological reconstructions of the Middle to Late Pleistocene occupations in the Southern Caucasus using rodent assemblages

Palaeoecological reconstructions of the Middle to Late Pleistocene occupations in the Southern Caucasus using rodent assemblages

Back to base: re-thinking variations in settlement and mobility behaviors in the Levantine Late Middle Paleolithic as seen from Shovakh Cave

Archaeological evidence for two culture diverse Neanderthal populations in the North Caucasus and contacts between them

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