Multiperiod archaeological reconnaissance in the Debed river valley, north-eastern Armenia

Abstract

The southern Caucasus is well known for the site of Dmanisi (Republic of Georgia), which provides the earliest well-accepted evidence for a human presence outside Africa around 1.8 million years ago (Gabunia et al. 2001), the Kura-Araxes culture, which dominated the area during the Early Bronze Age c. 3500–2400 BC (Smith 2005), and the Iron Age Urartian Empire, which lasted from the mid-ninth century BC until its collapse in the early sixth century BC (Piotrovsky 1969). The modern Republic of Armenia lies at the heart of this dynamic geographic corridor and is therefore poised to play a key role in understanding broader issues of prehistoric and historic human settlement. Here, we report briefly on archaeological surveys conducted by a joint Armenian-American team in the Debed river valley of north-eastern Armenia.