Epipalaeolithic Near East
40-505: Caucasus Zagros Trialetian is the name for an Upper Paleolithic - Epipaleolithic stone tool industry from the South Caucasus . It is tentatively dated to the period between 16,000 / 13,000 BP and 8,000 BP. The name of the archaeological culture derives from sites in the district of Trialeti in south Georgian Khrami river basin. These sites include Barmaksyzkaya and Edzani-Zurtaketi. In Edzani, an Upper Paleolithic site,
80-708: A Mesolithic hunter-gatherer individual found at the layer A2 of the Kotias Klde rock shelter in Georgia (labeled KK1), dating from 9,700 BP, has been analysed. This individual forms a genetic cluster with another hunter-gatherer from the Satsurblia Cave , the so-called Caucasian Hunter-Gatherer (CHG) cluster. KK1 belongs to the Y-chromosome haplogroup J2a and mitochondrial haplogroup H13c (an independent analysis has assigned him J2a1b-Y12379*). Although
120-600: A few words from Gasparyan about the industry found in Apnagyugh-8 (Kmlo-2) cave that express these similarities: Let us conclude that Apnagyugh-8 industry is closer to the production complexes with traditions of Mesolithic and/or Upper Paleolithic periods. But it’s difficult to show any culture or archaeological source in Armenia today, which belongs to these periods, preceding Apnagyugh-8 and could have been its origin or prototype. The only site that emerged before Apnagyugh-8
160-479: A large fireplace on one side and a niche facing it as well as adjacent yard areas. The floors were covered with lime plaster. The buildings were made of sun-dried cylindrical clay blocks about 70 cm long and 20 cm thick. The clay was mixed with finely chopped straw. There were about 30 houses that could have accommodated about 150–200 persons. Clay figurines found in Mehrgarh (Pakistan), an important precursor to
200-619: A paternal ancestor that lived approximately 18.7k years ago (according to the estimates of yfull ). At the autosomal level it falls in the cluster of the CHG's and the Iranian Neolithic Farmers. Upper Paleolithic The Upper Paleolithic (or Upper Palaeolithic ) is the third and last subdivision of the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age . Very broadly, it dates to between 50,000 and 12,000 years ago (the beginning of
240-577: A significant percentage of the artifacts are made of obsidian. The Caucasian - Anatolian area of Trialetian culture was adjacent to the Iraqi - Iranian Zarzian culture to the east and south as well as the Levantine Natufian to the southwest. Alan H. Simmons describes the culture as "very poorly documented". In contrast, recent excavations in the Valley of Qvirila river , to the north of
280-489: A specific purpose. The early modern humans who expanded into Europe, commonly referred to as the Cro-Magnons , left many sophisticated stone tools, carved and engraved pieces on bone, ivory and antler , cave paintings and Venus figurines . The Neanderthals continued to use Mousterian stone tool technology and possibly Châtelperronian technology. These tools disappeared from the archeological record at around
320-528: A way to convey seasonal behavioural information about hunted animals. Lines (|) and dots (•) were apparently used interchangeably to denote lunar months, while the (Y) sign apparently signified "To give birth". These characters were seemingly combined to convey the breeding period of hunted animals. The climate of the period in Europe saw dramatic changes, and included the Last Glacial Maximum ,
360-499: Is Kalavan-1, an Upper Paleolithic site dating to 16th–14th millennia B.C., where microliths of geometrical forms are fully absent. Though Apnagyugh-8 industry shows some similarities with Zarzian and Trialeti cultures, analytic studies for proving this comparison are still in the process. Layer III of Kmlo-2 contained the so-called “Kmlo tools”. Kmlo tools are characterized by "continuous and parallel retouch by pressure flaking of one or both lateral edges". Similar tools have been found, as
400-664: Is based on a cave lion skeleton found in Seigsdorf, Germany which has hunting lesions. 14,000 BP Fertile Crescent : Europe : Africa : Siberia : The Upper Paleolithic in the Franco-Cantabrian region : Jeitun Jeitun (Djeitun) is an archaeological site of the Neolithic period in southern Turkmenistan , about 30 kilometers north of Ashgabat in the Kopet-Dag mountain range. The settlement
440-840: The Balkans , parts of the Iberian Peninsula and areas around the Black Sea . This period saw cultures such as the Solutrean in France and Spain. Human life may have continued on top of the ice sheet, but we know next to nothing about it, and very little about the human life that preceded the European glaciers. In the early part of the period, up to about 30 kya, the Mousterian Pluvial made northern Africa, including
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#1732765034227480-601: The Holocene ), according to some theories coinciding with the appearance of behavioral modernity in early modern humans , until the advent of the Neolithic Revolution and agriculture . Anatomically modern humans (i.e. Homo sapiens ) are believed to have emerged in Africa around 300,000 years ago. It has been argued by some that their ways of life changed relatively little from that of archaic humans of
520-621: The Indus Valley Civilization , resemble those discovered at Teppe Zagheh , and at Jeitun. The people of the Jeitun culture were growing barley and two sorts of wheat , which were harvested with wooden or bone knives or sickles with stone blades. Stone handmills and other stone tools were found. The site seems to show the oldest evidence of arable farming in Central Asia. Sheep and goats were already domesticated by
560-570: The Middle Paleolithic , until about 50,000 years ago, when there was a marked increase in the diversity of artefacts found associated with modern human remains. This period coincides with the most common date assigned to expansion of modern humans from Africa throughout Asia and Eurasia, which contributed to the extinction of the Neanderthals . The Upper Paleolithic has the earliest known evidence of organized settlements , in
600-833: The Sahara , well-watered and with lower temperatures than today; after the end of the Pluvial the Sahara became arid. The Last Glacial Maximum was followed by the Allerød oscillation , a warm and moist global interstadial that occurred around 13.5 to 13.8 kya. Then there was a very rapid onset, perhaps within as little as a decade, of the cold and dry Younger Dryas climate period, giving sub-arctic conditions to much of northern Europe. The Preboreal rise in temperatures also began sharply around 10.3 kya, and by its end around 9.0 kya had brought temperatures nearly to present day levels, although
640-439: The fish hook , the oil lamp , rope , and the eyed needle . Fishing of pelagic fish species and navigating the open ocean is evidenced by sites from Timor and Buka ( Solomon Islands ). The changes in human behavior have been attributed to changes in climate, encompassing a number of global temperature drops. These led to a worsening of the already bitter cold of the last glacial period (popularly but incorrectly called
680-582: The 6th-5th millennia calBC. A local development of the Kmlo tools has also been hypothesized. Little is known about the end of the Trialetian. 6k BC has been proposed as the time on which the decline phase took place. From this date are the first evidence of the Jeitunian , an industry that has probably evolved from the Trialetian. Also from this date are the first pieces of evidence of Neolithic materials in
720-726: The Americas by about 15 ka. In Western Eurasia, the Paleolithic eases into the so-called Epipaleolithic or Mesolithic from the end of the LGM, beginning 15 ka. The Holocene glacial retreat begins 11.7 ka ( 10th millennium BC ), falling well into the Old World Epipaleolithic, and marking the beginning of the earliest forms of farming in the Fertile Crescent . Both Homo erectus and Neanderthals used
760-773: The Belt cave. In the southwest corner of the Trialetian region it has been proposed that this culture evolved towards a local version of the PPNB around 7k BC, in sites as Cafer Höyük . Kozłowski suggests that the Trialetian does not seem to have continuation in the Neolithic of Georgia (as for example in Paluri and Kobuleti). Although in the 5k BC certain microliths similar to those of the Trialetian reappear in Shulaveris Gora (see Shulaveri-Shomu ) and Irmis Gora. The genome of
800-559: The Jeitun culture, and they are found on both sides of the Kopet Dag mountains. They are especially common in the south-west Turkestani foothills of the mountains. The sites extend west as far as Shahrud, Iran , and also east to the Tedjen river that flows north from Afghanistan . Two other early Jeitun sites Chopan and Togolok are located nearby. Monjukli Depe is another site where Jeitun culture artifacts have been discovered. It
840-599: The Trialetian and the Caspian Mesolithic of the southeastern part of the Caspian Sea (represented by sites like Komishan, Hotu , Kamarband and Ali Tepe), even though the Caspian Mesolithic had previously been attributed to Trialetian by Kozłowski (1994, 1996 and 1999), Kozłowski and Aurenche 2005 and Peregrine and Ember 2002. These differences have been established through a detailed study of
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#1732765034227880-478: The Trialetian region, display a Mesolithic culture. The subsistence of these groups were based on hunting Capra caucasica , wild boar and brown bear . Caucasus and Transcaucasia : Eastern Anatolia : Trialetian influences can also be found in: Southeast of the Caspian Sea : The belonging of these Caspian Mesolithic sites to the Trialetian has been questioned. Differences have been found between
920-610: The area. Various types of the earliest Jeitun artefacts, such as clay figurines, decorated ceramics, and small stone axes, show similarities with those of the early agricultural Neolithic sites in the Zagros Mountains , such as Jarmo (Iraq). This may indicate the movements of the Neolithic people from the Levant to Central Asia, via the Zagros Mountains. It is possible that the later Jeitun influence expanded to
960-574: The associated to the Paluri-Nagutny culture in Georgia), the so-called "Çayönü tools” (Çayönü, Cafer Höyük, Shimshara), found in Neolithic sites from the 8th to 7th millennia BC in eastern Anatolia and northern Mesopotamia, and some found in the layer A2 of the Kotias Klde cave. It has been suggested that the Kmlo tools are distinctive features of a culture established circa 9-8k cal BC on the highlands of western Armenia and continued at least until
1000-614: The belonging of the Caspian Mesolithic to the Trialetian has been questioned, it is worth noting that genetic similarities have been found between an Mesolithic hunther-gatherer from the Hotu cave (labeled Iran_HotuIIIb) dating from 9,100-8,600 BCE and the CHG from Kotias Klde. The Iran_HotuIIIb individual belongs to the Y-chromosome haplogroup J (xJ2a1b3, J2b2a1a1) (an independent analysis yields J2a-CTS1085(xCTS11251,PF5073) -probably J2a2-). Then, both KK1 and Iran_HotuIIIb individuals share
1040-761: The climate was wetter. This period saw the Upper Paleolithic give way to the start of the following Mesolithic cultural period. As the glaciers receded sea levels rose; the English Channel , Irish Sea and North Sea were land at this time, and the Black Sea a fresh-water lake. In particular the Atlantic coastline was initially far out to sea in modern terms in most areas, though the Mediterranean coastline has retreated far less, except in
1080-457: The coldest phase of the last glacial period , which lasted from about 26.5 to 19 kya, being coldest at the end, before relatively rapid warming (all dates vary somewhat for different areas, and in different studies). During the Maximum, most of Northern Europe was covered by an ice-sheet , forcing human populations into the areas known as Last Glacial Maximum refugia , including modern Italy and
1120-623: The exploitation of marine resources and had access to high quality raw material, whereas in the Trialetian sites as Chokh and Trialeti there is imported raw material from distances of 100 km. Kmlo-2 is a rock shelter situated on the west slope of the Kasakh River valley, on the Aragats massif, in Armenia . This site seems to present three different phases of occupation (11-10k cal BC, 9-8k cal BC and 6-5k cal BC). The lithic industry of
1160-708: The form of campsites, some with storage pits. Artistic work blossomed, with cave painting, petroglyphs , carvings and engravings on bone or ivory. The first evidence of human fishing is also found from a 125,000 years old artefacts in Buya , Eritrea and in other places such as Blombos cave in South Africa . More complex social groupings emerged, supported by more varied and reliable food sources and specialized tool types. This probably contributed to increasing group identification or ethnicity . The peopling of Australia most likely took place before c. 60 ka . Europe
1200-513: The last ice age ). Such changes may have reduced the supply of usable timber and forced people to look at other materials. In addition, flint becomes brittle at low temperatures and may not have functioned as a tool. Some notational signs, used next to images of animals, may have appeared as early as the Upper Palaeolithic in Europe circa 35,000 BCE, and may be the earliest proto-writing : several symbols were used in combination as
1240-595: The north of the Adriatic and the Aegean . The rise in sea levels continued until at least 7.5 kya ( 5500 BC ), so evidence of human activity along Europe's coasts in the Upper Paleolithic is mostly lost, though some traces have been recovered by fishing boats and marine archaeology , especially from Doggerland , the lost area beneath the North Sea. The first direct evidence for Neanderthals hunting cave lions . This
Trialetian Mesolithic - Misplaced Pages Continue
1280-709: The same crude stone tools. Archaeologist Richard G. Klein , who has worked extensively on ancient stone tools, describes the stone tool kit of archaic hominids as impossible to categorize. He argues that almost everywhere, whether Asia , Africa or Europe , before 50,000 years ago all the stone tools are much alike and unsophisticated. Firstly among the artefacts of Africa, archeologists found they could differentiate and classify those of less than 50,000 years into many different categories, such as projectile points, engraving tools, knife blades, and drilling and piercing tools. These new stone-tool types have been described as being distinctly differentiated from each other; each tool had
1320-421: The same time the Neanderthals themselves disappeared from the fossil record, about 40,000 cal BP. Settlements were often located in narrow valley bottoms, possibly associated with hunting of passing herds of animals. Some of them may have been occupied year round, though more commonly they appear to have been used seasonally; people moved between the sites to exploit different food sources at different times of
1360-511: The site of Komishan and are driven by the underlying differences at the level of cultural ecology . While Trialetian industry developed in steppe riparian and mountain ecozones, as for example in the Khrami river and the mountainous site of Chokh respectively, the Caspian Mesolithic took place in a transitional ecotone between the sea (Caspian Sea), plain and mountains ( Alborz mountain range ). The Caspian Mesolithic hunter-gatherers were adapted to
1400-520: The south, across the Kopet Dag mountains to Kermanshah Province and Luristan , to the sites such as Tepe Guran , Tepe Sarab , and Ganj Dareh . Jeitun culture may have begun prior to 7000 BC, judging by the age of Sang-i Chakmak , the earliest settlement where such artefacts are found. In the same area of the Gorgan Plain , other related sites are Yarim Tepe (Iran) , and Tureng Tepe . There are about twenty archaeological sites attributed to
1440-801: The three phases show similarities such as the predominance of microliths , small cores and obsidian as raw material. The backed an scalene bladelets are the dominant type of microlith; these tools show similarities with those of the Late Upper Paleolithic of Kalavan-1 and the Mesolithic layer B of the Kotias Klde. Cultural affinities of the Kmlo-2 lithic industry with the Epipaleolithic and Aceramic Neolithic sites in Taurus-Zagros mountains have also been noted. Let us quote
1480-456: The villagers, but they also hunted to supplement their diet. The results of the research by David R. Harris show that, in this region, there were none of the wild forms of einkorn or barley that could have been used for domestication, so these were brought from elsewhere already domesticated. The same applies to sheep. The wild goat Capra aegagrus , on the other hand, was widespread in Central Asia and could, therefore, have been domesticated in
1520-486: The year. Hunting was important, and caribou/wild reindeer "may well be the species of single greatest importance in the entire anthropological literature on hunting". Technological advances included significant developments in flint tool manufacturing, with industries based on fine blades rather than simpler and shorter flakes . Burins and racloirs were used to work bone, antler and hides . Advanced darts and harpoons also appear in this period, along with
1560-453: Was occupied from about 7200 to 4500 BC possibly with short interruptions. Jeitun has given its name to the whole Neolithic period in the foothills of the Kopet Dag. Jeitun was discovered by Alexander Marushchenko and has been excavated since the 1950s by Boris Kuftin and Mikhail Masson . The site covers an area of about 5,000 square meters. It consists of free-standing houses of a uniform ground plan. The houses were rectangular and had
1600-487: Was peopled after c. 45 ka. Anatomically modern humans are known to have expanded northward into Siberia as far as the 58th parallel by about 45 ka ( Ust'-Ishim man ). The Upper Paleolithic is divided by the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), from about 25 to 15 ka. The peopling of the Americas occurred during this time, with East and Central Asia populations reaching the Bering land bridge after about 35 ka, and expanding into
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