Ptghavan-4: A Middle Paleolithic Open-Air Site in the Debed River Gorge, Armenia

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Pleistocene Landscapes and Hominin Behavior in the Armenian Highlands" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The recently excavated site of Ptghavan-4 in the Armenian Highlands provides rare data on Middle Paleolithic hominin behaviors during the early Upper Pleistocene. The site contains a dense accumulation of lithic artifacts that are Middle Paleolithic in character within a pedogenically modified aeolian deposit, which has been dated to MIS 5e/d. Currently, only two Middle Paleolithic sites in this region, Alapars-1 and Hovk-1, have deposits dating to Stage 5, both of which have a low find density. Here results from the 2019/2022 field seasons and initial lithic analysis are reported. The technotypological composition of Ptghavan-4 is compared to dated Middle Paleolithic sites in the Armenian Highlands to understand how it might relate to regional technological sequences. Ongoing and future geological, chronometric, and archaeological work at the site will allow us to test hypotheses on both local and interregional hominin behavioral dynamics. Further, the site has potential for exploring both older and younger behavioral periods through newly discovered artifact horizons both below and above the main Middle Paleolithic artifact-bearing deposits.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)   •
• Pleistocene Landscapes and Hominin Behavior in the Armenian Highlands

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 37322.0