Kalavan-2 (North of Lake Sevan, Armenia): A New Late Middle Paleolithic Site in the Lesser Caucasus

Kalavan-2 (North of Lake Sevan, Armenia): A New Late Middle Paleolithic Site in the Lesser Caucasus

R. Ghukasyan, D. Colonge, S. Nahapetyan, V. Ollivier, B. Gasparyan, H. Monchot, and Ch. Chataigner.

During a survey conducted in 2005, the open-air site of Kalavan-2 was discovered located at an altitude of about 1600 m in the mountains dominating the northern bank of Lake Sevan (Armenia). The site yielded a Paleolithic industry associated with faunal remains, indicating that this is an important locality in the study of Armenian prehistory. Excavations at Kalavan-2 have revealed a stratigraphic sequence with several phases of occupation attributed to the Middle Paleolithic period. A radiocarbon date of a fragment of dental enamel from a large bovid provided an age of 34,200 ± 360 BP for the Mousterian level 7, confi rming the attribution of this deposit to the fi nal phase of the Middle Paleolithic and the importance of this site for the study of the last presence of Neanderthals in the Southern Caucasus.

Keywords: Mousterian, Late Middle Paleolithic, Lesser Caucasus, Armenia.