Short-term occupations at high elevation during the Middle Paleolithic at Kalavan 2 (Republic of Armenia)

Abstract

The Armenian highlands encompasses rugged and environmentally diverse landscapes and is characterized by a mosaic of distinct ecological niches and large temperature gradients. Strong seasonal fluctuations in resource availability along topographic gradients likely prompted Pleistocene hominin groups to adapt by adjusting their mobility strategies. However, the role that elevated landscapes played in hunter-gatherer settlement systems during the Late Pleistocene (Middle Palaeolithic [MP]) remains poorly understood. At 1640 m above sea level, the MP site of Kalavan 2 (Armenia) is ideally positioned for testing hypotheses involving elevation-dependent seasonal mobility and subsistence strategies. Renewed excavations at Kalavan 2 exposed three main occupation horizons and ten additional low densities lithic and faunal assemblages. The results provide a new chronological, stratigraphical, and paleoenvironmental framework for hominin behaviors between ca. 60 to 45 ka. The evidence presented suggests that the stratified occupations at Kalavan 2 locale were repeated ephemerally most likely related to hunting in a high-elevation within the mountainous steppe landscape.

Establishing a Luminescence-Based Chronostratigraphy for the Last Glacial-Interglacial Cycle of the Loess-Palaeosol Sequence Achajur (Armenia)

“…Based on the luminescence ages, the most prominent of these palaeosols (L-1/S2) falls into a period between 66 ± 4 and 49 ± 3 ka and can possibly be related to the pronounced Greenland interstadial 14 from 55 to 51.5 ka (Rasmussen et al, 2014). At the site Kalavan 2, 50 km south of the Sevkar loess area, a juxtaposition of surface erosion and pedogenesis was interpreted as evidence for strong seasonality changes in line with a sequence of stadials and interstadials at the end of MIS4 and the beginning of MIS3 (Malinsky-Buller et al, 2021). Intermediate climate conditions during this stage of MIS3 are recognised at Lake Van with a minor increase in Quercus pollen between 50 and 60 ka.…”

First pollen record from the Late Holocene forest environment in the Lesser Caucasus

“…Only a few sites have been uncovered until now in the forested mountains of the Lesser Caucasus, north of Lake Sevan (Figure 2a). Kalavan-1 is located at 1600 m altitude, on the right bank of the Barepat River, a couple of hundred metres away from the Palaeolithic open-air site Kalavan-2 (Gasparyan et al, 2008;Ghukasyan et al, 2011;Malinsky-Buller et al, 2021). At Kalavan 1, two phases of occupation have been uncovered (Liagre et al, 2009).…”

“…Placed to the northeast of Lake Sevan (Figure 2a), midway between the plains of the Araxes and the Kura, the penetrating valleys of the mountain range could have served as a shortcut, being at the centre of the Bronze Age populations (Kuro-Araxes; Badalyan, 2014) and Iron (Urartu empire and Lchashen-Metsamor culture; Badalyan et al, 2008). These areas were already used as summer-autumn hunting areas in the Palaeolithic (Malinsky-Buller et al, 2021;Montoya et al, 2013), and later as a summer transhumance areas in the high grasslands (Arimura et al, 2014). There are therefore many reasons to be interested in the history of these forests.…”

Palaeoenvironmental and Chronological Context of Hominin Occupations of the Armenian Highlands During Mis 3: Evidence from Ararat-1 Cave

“…A growing number of open-air and cave sites in the Armenian Highlands and southern Caucasus (sensu Bailey, 1989) that contain either Middle Palaeolithic (MP) or Upper Palaeolithic (UP) lithic industries correlated to MIS 3 have been subject to detailed geoarchaeological and chronological investigations (see Moncel et al, 2015;Gasparyan and Glauberman, 2022 for a review). Current evidence from these sites suggests that MP lithic technology may have persisted in the Armenian Highlands up to around 30 ka (Egeland et al, 2016;Sherriff et al, 2019;Glauberman et al, 2020a,b;Malinsky-Buller et al, 2021), and these populations were occupying a diverse range of ecological niches and adapting their land use seasonally (Golovanova and Doronichev, 2003;Adler and Tushabramishvili, 2004;Adler et al, 2006;Moncel et al, 2015;Malinsky-Buller et al, 2021;Gasparyan and Glauberman, 2022). Evidence from the archaeological record appears to suggest that elevation may played a key role in subsistence behaviour, relatively high-altitude sites such as Hovk-1 (2040 m asl; Pinhasi et al, 2008Pinhasi et al, , 2011, and Kalavan-2 (1636 m asl; Malinsky-Buller et al, 2021) occupied infrequently or at low intensities due to harsh winter conditions.…”