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Paleolithic Armenia

2.6 million years before present (hereinafter-Myr) the Homi- nids called Homo habilis living in East Africa, made ancient stone tools called choppers by chipping the edges of river stones. From that moment the Lower Paleolithic (Old Stone Age) culture began.

The diverse landscape of the Armenian Highland was excep- tionally favorable for the habitation of hominids of the Paleolithic Homo species. Here the necessary raw materials for the creation of stone tools were availale: andesite, dacite, obsidian, as well as a rich variety of hunting animals and vegetable food, including wide variety of poaceae family plants, countless fresh springs, rivers and creeks, which fulfilled the demand for drinking water anywhere in the Highland.

Early Stone Age

In the last decades, several dozen sites of the Early Old Stone Age (Black Cross, Kurtan, etc.) and ancient assemblages of stone tools (Oldowan and Acheulian type of choppers, sharp edges tools, massive hand cutters with bilateral finishing) have been discovered in the north of Armenia. The results of uranium-lead isotope de- composition indicate, that the absolute age of the early Acheulian cultural layers is 1,85-1,77 Myr. These are the oldest evidences of the existence of Homo erectus in the Eurasian vast region.

Late Acheulian Age

In the late Acheulian (500-300 thousand years before present, hereinafter - Thyr) Armenia, tools (bifaces), hand axes, were found, made of double-sided pieces of obsidian and dacite, leaf-shaped, with sharp, symmetrical edges, the thick part of the base of the tools adapted to the human palm. To the North of Armenia, in the foothills of the volcanic Javahk mountain range, around 30 ancient sites of the Old Stone Age were discovered: Blagodarnoe, Nora- mut, etc., in one of which a cultural layer was uncovered, which contained not only bifaces, but also the entire collection of their preparatory materials: cores, flakes, blades and other small items, that testify the complete cycle of tool making at the site. The regu- lar shapes, fine transverse section and careful finishing of the cut- ting edges of the Acheulian hand-axes made of dacite, indicate, that their main group dates back to the Late Acheulian epoch (500-250 Thyr).

Late Acheulian finds were also discovered in the Hrazdan river valley (Arzni, Nurnus, Satani Dar, Erkar Blur, Gutanasar, Jraber, Hatis, etc.), on the southwestern slopes of Artin Mountain and the Aragats massif (Satani Dar, Dashtadem).

The number of tools made by the Neander- thals, the most advanced of the hominids found in the Late Acheulian and Middle Paleolithic (250-40 Thyr) Armenia, reaches to thousands. In the middle phase of the Lower Paleolithic period, the Neanderthals lived in caves near rivers (Yerevan 1, Lusak- ert 1-2, Arzni, Hovk, Kalavan, Aghitu, etc.) and in high plateaus (southern slopes of Aragats: Dashtadem, Arteni, Syunik -at the foot of Amulsar and elsewhere). The Expedition of the Research Cen- ter of Historical and Cultural Heritage discovered late Acheulian bifaces in 2012-2021, in the south of the Republic of Armenia, in Syunik region, at the headwaters of Vorotan, on a plateau 2200-2300 m above the sea level. Throughout the whole 5 km long and 2-3 km wide upland area there are tens of thousands of obsidian cores, tools, rubble and frag- ments typical of the Late Acheulian, Middle and Upper Palaeolithic era.

Late Stone Age

Armenia is one of those places where in 120- 100 Thyr inhabitation processes took place (Nor Geghi 1, Aghavnatun, Bagratashen). In the Late Stone Age, 60-40 Thyr a number of caves were in- habited (Yerevan 1, Lusakert, Barozh). During the last (Vyrumyan) glacial period, there were harsh climatic conditions in the Armenian Highland, as a result of which the traces of human-Homo Sapiens activities are small in number (Aghitu - 35-24 Thyr and Kalavan 1-18-16 Thyr).