Late Middle Paleolithic Technological Organization and Behavior at the Open-Air Site of Barozh 12 (Armenia)

Abstract

Barozh 12 is a late Middle Paleolithic open-air locality in western Armenia dating from ~ 60,000 to 31,000 years ago. Stratified deposits with high densities of obsidian artifacts permit the analysis of diachronic trends in manufacture, reduction, discard, and toolstone provisioning as related to technological organization in the context of hunter-gatherer mobility and land use. Throughout much of Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 3, the occupants of Barozh 12 employed consistent unidirectional-convergent and unidirectional Levallois and “para-Levallois” core reduction techniques. Site occupation intensity varied over time, with changing emphasis on local core reduction and tool discard. Obsidian artifact sourcing indicates predominantly local toolstone exploitation, while blanks bearing retouch were intermittently transported to Barozh 12 over distances up to ~ 190 linear km. As a repeatedly visited, persistent place in regional settlement systems, this site records a range of mobility strategies and differential use of diverse eco-geographic zones. This study—a detailed analysis of late Middle Paleolithic technological organization at an open-air site in the Armenian highlands—broadens the regional record of Late Pleistocene hominin technological behaviors and settlement dynamics during a crucial period of human evolution.