Contextualizing the Upper Paleolithic of the Armenian Highlands: New data from Solak-1, central Armenia

Tanner Z Kovach; Artur Petrosyan; Keith N Wilkinson; Yannick Raczynski-Henk; Kathleen Rodrigues; Ellery Frahm; Emily Beverly; Jayson P Gill; Jennifer E Sherriff; Boris Gasparyan; Hayk G Avetisyan; Artak V Gnuni; Daniel S Adler

doi:10.1016/j.jhevol.2024.103632

Contextualizing the Upper Paleolithic of the Armenian Highlands: New data from Solak-1, central Armenia

J Hum Evol. 2025 Jan 13:199:103632. doi: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2024.103632. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Department of Anthropology, University of Connecticut, 354 Mansfield Road, Unit 2176, Storrs, CT, 06269, USA. Electronic address: [email protected].
² Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia, 375019, Charents Street 15, Yerevan, Armenia.
³ Department of Archaeology, Anthropology and Geography, University of Winchester, Winchester, S022 4NR, UK.
⁴ Department of World Archaeology, Human Origins Group, Leiden University, Postbus 9514, 2300 RA, Leiden, Netherlands.
⁵ Division of Earth & Ecosystem Sciences, Desert Research Institute, 2215 Raggio Parkway, Reno, NV, 89512, USA.
⁶ Department of Anthropology, Council on Archaeological Studies, Yale University, 10 Sachem Street, PO Box 208277, New Haven, CT, 06520, USA.
⁷ Department of Earth & Environmental Sciences, College of Science and Engineering, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities. Suite 150, 116 Church Street SE, Minneapolis, MN, 55455, USA.
⁸ Department of Anthropology, University of Connecticut, 354 Mansfield Road, Unit 2176, Storrs, CT, 06269, USA; Archaeology Program, Wesleyan University, 294 High Street, Middletown, CT, 06459, USA.
⁹ Department of Geography, School of Global Affairs, Faculty of Social Science and Public Policy, King's College London, 30 Aldwych, London, WC2B 4BG, UK.
¹⁰ Faculty of History, Department of Archeology and Ethnography, Yerevan State University, 1 Alex Manoogian, Yerevan, 0025, Republic of Armenia.
¹¹ Department of Anthropology, University of Connecticut, 354 Mansfield Road, Unit 2176, Storrs, CT, 06269, USA.

PMID: 39809134
DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2024.103632

Abstract

As a potential corridor connecting Southwest Asia with western and northern Europe, the Armenian Highlands and southern Caucasus hold great potential for increasing our understanding of Upper Paleolithic behavioral and cultural variability. However, given the dearth of Upper Paleolithic sites, we lack the data necessary to answer basic questions regarding the timing and nature of the Upper Paleolithic in this region. Solak-1 is an open-air site located along the upper Hrazdan Valley (1635 m above sea level) in central Armenia. The site preserves a rich Upper Paleolithic lithic assemblage produced almost exclusively on obsidian and is just the fourth Upper Paleolithic sequence in Armenia. The goal of this study is to present geoarchaeological, chronometric, and technological analyses of the Solak-1 site to integrate the site into the regional Upper Paleolithic sequence. Solak-1 is composed of six lithostratigraphic units (LUs 1-6) comprising recently reworked (LUs 1-2), pedogenically modified (LUs 3-5), and primary (LU 6) loess. A single-grain postinfrared infrared stimulated luminescence date of 27.73 ± 3.63 ka was obtained from LU 4. This age is comparable to regional Middle Upper Paleolithic sites in Armenia and Georgia. Technotypological analyses indicate a lithic assemblage dominated by the production of bladelets and bladelet tools from formal and informal cores. Geochemical sourcing of the obsidian highlights a predominance of local raw material use, with rare transport of artifacts over 185 linear km. These results add an important new datapoint to the Upper Paleolithic record of the Armenian Highlands, offering additional insights into technotypological patterning within this period.

Keywords: Geoarchaeology; Late Pleistocene; Lithic technology; Luminescence dating; Southern Caucasus.