Azykh Cave / Azokh Cave

Azıx mağarası

Azerbaijan · Khojavend

CaveUnknown
Approximate periodLower and Middle Paleolithic See on the map ↓

In brief

The cave has an important stratigraphic sequence for investigating Pleistocene human activities in the Caucasus. Renewed excavations assessed stone tools, animal remains and human fossils together, concluding that some periods of use were brief and seasonal.

What was found?

  • 1Human lower jaw fragment

    This is a human lower jaw fragment found in layer V in 1968. It is one of the cave's key finds for research into human evolution.

  • 2Stone tools made using the Levallois method

    A stone tool assemblage with a pronounced Levallois component was found in unit II. This assemblage documents Middle Paleolithic stoneworking technology.

  • 3Stone flakes and cores

    The examined layers contain mainly flakes, with fewer cores and retouched pieces. Their distribution allows investigation of which stages of tool production took place in the cave.

  • 4Cave bear remains

    Cave bears account for most of the animal remains. Researchers associate this concentration with bears hibernating in the rear parts of the cave.

  • 5Animal bones bearing traces of human modification

    Some animal bones bear traces of human activity. According to researchers, some of the herbivore remains were brought into the cave by humans.

What does it point to?

The deposits at Azıh preserve overlapping traces of human activity and animals' use of the cave. Stone tools and bones bearing traces of modification show that people exploited animal resources; the entire bone accumulation cannot be attributed to human activity.

What did it teach us?

  1. Showed that the technological characteristics of stone tool assemblages varied between layers.
  2. Revealed the important role of cave bears in natural accumulations.
  3. Documented that the stages of stone tool production were not all equally represented in the cave.

Record

Culture
Late Acheulean and Mousterian stone tool traditions
Coordinates
39.6192°, 46.9887°

Sources

  1. journals.ed.ac.uk
  2. orbi.uliege.be
  3. arxeologiya.az

Nearby excavations


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12.000

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