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The article discusses early Levallois stone tool technology and the lower to middle Paleolithic transition in the Southern Caucasus. The authors discuss their data from the site Nor Geghi 1 in Armenia, which is the earliest recorded use of bifacial and Levallois technology outside Africa and which is consistent with the authors' hypothesis that this transition occurred independently within geographically dispersed hominin populations that shared a technological ancestry.

Abstract: The territory of present day Armenia is a geographic contact zone between the Near East and the northern Caucasus. Armenian Middle and Upper Paleolithic records are both few and patchy as a result of the historical paucity of systematic archaeological research in the country. Consequently, it is currently difficult to correlate the Armenian Middle and Upper Paleolithic records with those from other neighboring regions. We present new archaeological and chronometric data (luminescence, U-Th, and 14C) from our ongoing research at Hovk 1 Cave in northeast Armenia. We discuss in particular two activity phases in Hovk 1 Cave for which we have outline chronometric data: (1) an early Middle Paleolithic occupational phase, dated by optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) to 104±9.8ka BPOSL; and (2) a Paleolithic occupational phase characterized by microlithic flakes dated by AMS 14C to 39,109±1,324 calibrated years BPHulu. The two phases are separated by a hiatus in hominin occupation corresponding to MIS 4 and an episode in early MIS 3. These chronometric data, taken together with the preliminary paleoenvironmental reconstruction of the Hovk 1 Cave and environment, suggest that these activity phases represent short-lived and seasonal use of the cave presumably by small groups of hunters during episodes of mild climate. Neither tool manufacture nor butchery appears to have taken place within the cave, and consequently, the archaeological record included, for the most part, finished tools and blanks. We address the chronology and techno-typological aspects of Hovk 1 lithics in relation to: (1) the Paleolithic records of Armenia, and (2) the broader interregional context of early Middle Paleolithic hominin occupation and the Middle-Upper Paleolithic transition in the Caucasus. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Charting the timing of human occupation in the mountainous regions of the Caucasus during the Last Interglacial/Glacial periods is of particular interest to the understanding of past human adaptive and behavioural plasticity and capacity. In this paper we analyse palaeoenvironmental, faunal, and archaeological data gathered during 2006–2009 excavations of the Palaeolithic cave site of Hovk-1, Armenia, in order to address whether human presence in this cave correlates with episodes of mild climate and certain environmental and ecological conditions that were favourable to huminin occupation in such a region. In the second part of the paper we evaluate the implications of our results in understanding the nature of human presence in other mountainous regions such as the Alps and its potential implications for Palaeolithic research. Our analysis demonstrates that hominins occupied Hovk-1 Cave during milder climatic phases of the Last Interglacial sensu lato (MIS 5d-c) and Last Glacial (late MIS 4/early MIS 3) periods when the area surrounding the cave was an open meadow environment. The stratigraphic Units with noticeable traces of hominin occupation (Units 4, 5 & 8) contrast with others in the lack of cave bear fauna and suggest an inverse correlation between human and cave bear occupational phases in Hovk-1. We speculate that human groups visited this region to hunt specific prey species that prevailed in this habitat (such as the bezoar goat). However, the assemblages of large mammals from Hovk-1 do not provide any clear anthropogenic signal and therefore highlight the difficulty of teasing apart natural and cultural formation processes. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]