Metsavan (Chakhmakhkar) 'workshop'. The slopes of the Chakhmakhkar Mountain, east of Metsavan village, are littered with artefacts, manufactured predominantly from the local dacite rocks. They include Mousterian tools: single-platform Levallois cores, Levallois flakes and blades. The Post-Palaeolithic series consist of prismatic cores, end-scrapers, small-size points, notched and combined tools.
The new evidence supports the view that Armenia was part of the corridor via which early hominids were expanding from Africa into the Eurasian landmass. Our survey identified at least one cave site (Pechka) with the Mousterian industry. This implies a possible occurrence of more stratified sites in the vicinity. Open-air sites ('workshops') with the materials attestable as Acheulean, or Mousterian, or both, equally suggest an intensive Early and Middle Palaeolithic occupations with a probable occurrence of dwelling sites. The total absence of authentic Upper Palaeolithic assemblages is equally significant. Earlier writers (Panichkina 1950; Sardarian 1954) reported the finds of prismatic cores and blades with flat striking platforms which they identified as 'Upper Palaeolithic'. In view or the recent experience all these tools may be classified as 'post-Palaeolithic' with their probable age ranging from the Neolithic to Chalcolithic. This implies that, due to the severity of climatic conditions, Armenia was totally abandoned by humans during the Last Glacial Maximum and was resettled again starting with the Neolithic.
-Pavel Dolukhanov
Human adaptation
Pavel Dolukhanov, Stepan Aslanian, Evgeny Kolpakov & Elena Belyaeva
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