Abstract
The province of Van in north-eastern Turkey served as a land bridge between Africa and Eurasia during the Palaeolithic. The region is of particular relevance for understanding the movement of hominins between these continents. This study concerns the lithic remains from a locality at GÜrgÜrbaba Hill, named Locality 010, north of the village of Ulupamir (Erciş district). Locality 010 was dated to 311±32 kya by terrestrial cosmogenic nuclides method, which coincides with Marine Isotope Stage 9 (MIS 9), a Middle Pleistocene interglacial period. The assemblage from this site is attributed to the Late Acheulean and resembles that of the southern Caucasus. This similarity indicates that the artefacts from Locality 010 were probably produced by late Lower Palaeolithic technology in a broad sense. These findings suggest local adaptations of late Middle Pleistocene hominins to high plateau environments.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 289-308 |
| Number of pages | 20 |
| Journal | European Journal of Archaeology |
| Volume | 25 |
| Issue number | 3 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 20 Aug 2022 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the European Association of Archaeologists.
Funding
This work was supported by the Turkish Historical Society, under Grants 2016.49, 2017.90, 2018.86, and 2019.72, and by Van-Yüzüncü Yıl University, under Grants SBA2017-5509 and 2014-EDB218. The site of Gürgürbaba Hill was investigated within a project titled ‘The Survey of the Pleistocene Period at Van’ initiated by the authors. We would like to express our sincere gratitude to the staff of the Van Regional Cultural Heritage Conservation Board Directorate, and the Van Archaeology Museum Directorate for their valuable contributions. We are most grateful to Fikret Yaşar who provided accommodation in Erciş. Erkan Konyar provided field equipment. We are also grateful to Naoki Morimoto (Department of Biological Science, Kyoto University), Amy E. Clark (Department of Anthropology, Harvard University), and Engin Sönmez (Department of Sociology, University of Essex, Colchester) for language revision. Finally, we would like to thank the editors and anonymous reviewers and our proof-reader.
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| Turkish Historical Society | 2016.49, 2018.86, 2017.90, 2019.72 |
| Van-Yüzüncü Yıl University | 2014-EDB218, SBA2017-5509 |
Keywords
- GÜrgÜrbaba Hill
- Late Acheulean
- eastern Anatolia
- human migration
- landscape adaptation
- obsidian
