Correction to: Occupying Cave-Sites: A Case Study from Azokh 1 Cave (Southern Caucasus) (original) (raw)
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Journal of Lithic Studies, 2014
Azokh Cave is a Middle Pleistocene to Holocene site located in Nagorno Karabagh (Lesser Caucasus). The main entrance, Azokh 1, is a large cave that has two geological sequences (lower and upper) with nine geo-archaeological units of which only the upper ones (Units I to V) have a significant archaeological record. The faunal remains and lithic artefacts in these units indicate aspects of human occupation, and exploitation of, and association with animals. The lithic artefacts presented here were recovered from Units V, III and II during the 2002-2009 excavation seasons. The available chronological data indicates an age between 293-100 Ka for these units. The operational chain is incomplete and artefacts found in the cave are primarily endproducts dominated by flake-tools. The assemblage of Unit V is composed primarily of simple, unretouched flakes with a minimal presence of retouched flakes and cores. The Unit II lithic assemblage includes a substantial Levallois component, although with fewer cores and retouched flakes. There are very few flake tools in Unit III. While it is still difficult to assign the Unit V assemblage to a techno-typological group or complex (i.e. Acheulean, Mousterian or other local techno-complexes such as the Kudarian), the Unit II assemblage is clearly associated with Mode 3 or the Mousterian techno-complex. Different local and non-local raw materials were exploited in all units for the production of lithic artefacts, although the range of raw materials is more varied in Unit II. Local chert, flint and basalt were used most commonly, probably due to their easy accessibility. Limestone, jasper and sandstone, from local and non-local sources, are present in small quantities in Units V and II. Obsidian is the only raw material that possibly originates from more distant sources. Flint and chert appear to have been preferentially exploited for flake tool production in all units, but the toolmakers show a preference for better quality raw material (flint, basalt, obsidian) for retouched pieces in Units V and II, and for Levallois production in Unit II. 34 L. Asryan et al.
2021
This special issue of Neo-Lithics on the 13 th season of the Ba`ja Neolithic Project, or the 3 rd season of the Household and Dead in Ba`ja-Project (www.bajahouseholdanddeath.de), serves as an example for a new Neo-Lithics format of online interim reports off ered by the board of Neo-Lithics and ex oriente (authors will get a high-resolution pdf, if they wish to print it and are free to redistribute these reports without any restrictions). This new format aims to fi ll a need and an existing gap for extensive preliminary reports, in the form of interim reports. At their best, interim reports should summarise more than one excavation season. Three reasons appear important to fi ll this gap: fi rst, it is diffi cult for review journals to evaluate and thus accept reports with preliminary or interim results. Second, fi nal publications are often massively delayed, while brevity requirements of previous ordinary preliminary reports did not provide enough space for detailed presentations. In such cases, when years have gone by, the non-availability of more detailed preliminary information may damage ongoing research (however, we can assure you that for the current Household and Dead in Ba`ja-Project this reason doesn't count, since we are already working on the fi nal publication with a tight schedule). And lastly, there exists a "soft" aim to publish interim reports-they are an early internal and transdisciplinarily active means in a team's evaluation work to guide and set common lines of interpretation, to fi nd a shared language and epistemic standards, and to fi x incorporation policies and the corporate spirit of a project. This issue's interim report is a good example for that: it presents interpretation at a higher level compared to preliminary reports, it assists the transdisciplinarity and corporateness of ongoing research for a fi nal publication, and it presents an early and more detailed understanding of fi ndings to the Neolithic research family. Since 2020, the cover of Neo-Lithics has received a "facelifting" designed by M. Renger, based on the traditional background once mounted 1994 by H.G.K. Gebel and A. Gopher. We invite all colleagues to consider these arguments by which we encourage more interim reports.
2020
Books on chipped-stone assemblages are not a frequent event in the scientific discourse of the Balkans. This is the first reason this luxury book cannot be omitted. Another is the fact that the book presents part of the exceptionally rich lithic inventory of the well-known multilayer settlement of Mǎgura Gorgana Tell. The most recent achievement of the Pietrele project is the publication of the chipped-stone assemblages from the Chalcolithic layers. The book summarizes the results of a long and continuous study of these assemblages, thus compiling and completing the regular reports of its authors to the Eurasia Antiqua periodical. The text is structured in 12 parts-not necessarily chapters (incl. Introduction, Discussion, Conclusions and a chapter written by Ch. Nachev) consisting, in total, of 68 pages of text. An abstract, bibliography and 85 plates of drawings are presented after the main text. There are high quality colour photographs providing adequate visibility of features such as morphology and raw material of the artefacts, as well as numerous graphs and tables with statistical data aiming to facilitate the reading and comprehension of the text (fig. 1) The Introduction defines the book as an "interdisciplinary study of the techno-typological and functional characteristics and examination of the raw material system of procurement and supply of the blade technology in the Lower Danube area..."(p. 1). This statement (omitting the ambiguous use of 'procurement and supply' which should refer to the raw material and not to the blade technology) provokes big expectations in the readers. Moreover, it is asserted that the assemblages are analyzed in synchronic and diachronic aspects i.e.: i) in comparison with Chalcolithic assemblages from parts of Bulgaria and ii) as correlation between Neolithic and Chalcolithic inventories within the Tell itself (p. 1). Last but not least, the authors affirm a re-examination of the entire lithic material (i.e. re-assessment of their previous (!) study) with the invaluable help of J. Pelegrin, who worked on the site for a couple of seasons (p. 2). The introduction offers a comparative chronological table of four Balkan countries and Turkey but unfortunately does not contain a map of the site in its regional context, or any planigraphic or stratigraphic scheme which would be very useful (if not obligatory!) for the concrete study. Chapter 2 provides the methods of research with a short description of six categories of artefacts, which had been recorded, analyzed and interpreted. The list starts with a newly distinct cat
Archaeological Investigations in a Northern Albanian Province: Results of the Projekti Arkeologjik i Shkodres (PASH): Volume Two: Artifacts and Artifact Analysis, 2023
This chapter aims to present the lithic assemblages from the PASH survey region. The first lithic artifact from an archaeological context in Albania was discovered in one of the Shtoj tumuli by Theodor Ippen, an Austro-Hungarian diplomat stationed in Shkodra (Ippen 1902:210). This discovery falls within PASH Zone 2. However, focused work on lithic finds from the area did not commence until the 1980s. A significant contribution towards such studies was made by Anton Fistani, who began his scientific career in the field of biochemistry (Fistani 1976, 1977, 1979a, 1979b, 1979c, 1980, 1981a, 1981b, 1983a; Fistani and Ilirjana 1989), and later became a self-taught paleontologist and archaeologist. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Fistani identified, through surveys and excavations, a number of sites, such as Gajtan, Baran, Bleran, Shiroka, and Rragam, which ranged in date from the Lower to the Upper Paleolithic. He was passionately dedicated to his work and published a large number of articles, both for the scientific community and for the wider public (Fistani 1982a, 1982b, 1983b, 1983c, 1984a, 1984b, 1984c, 1985a, 1985b, 1985c, 1985d, 1986a, 1986b, 1986c, 1987b, 1987c, 1987d, 1987e, 1987f, 1988a, 1988b, 1988c, 1988d, 1988e, 1989a, 1989b, 1989c, 1990a, 1990b, 1990c, 1990d, 1993a, 1993b, 1993c, 1994, 1995a, 1995b, 1997; Fistani and Crégut-Bonnoure 1993). In addition, in the early 1980s, Albanian prehistorian Bep Jubani discovered the Shpella e Hudhrës (PASH Site 004), which he dated to the Mesolithic (Jubani 1984:127, 1991:231–232). Despite the great potential of the region for lithic studies, as demonstrated by Fistani’s pioneering work, no further research on lithic artifacts was conducted in the region until PASH.