Asych cave

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Entrance to the cave
Excavations in the cave in 2009

The Asych Cave ( Armenian Ազոխ , Azerbaijani Azıx mağarası ) is a cave system made up of six chambers that is known as a storage place for Stone Age people . It is located 3 km northeast of the village of Tugh in Nagorno-Karabakh . Since an extensive study by archaeologists in the 1960s, the cave has been considered one of the oldest proto-human dwellings in Eurasia . A jawbone found in 1968, which resembles that of a Neanderthal , is estimated to be over 300,000 years old and is therefore one of the oldest proto-human remains on this part of the world. His discovery coined the term Asych-Mensch .

According to archaeologists, the finds in the lower cave layers can be assigned to a pre- Acheuléen culture, with an age of 730,000–1,500,000 years one of the oldest in the world, which shows many parallels to the Oldowan culture in Tanzania's Olduvai Gorge . In addition, traces of a culture of the Moustérien were discovered.

The excavations in the 1960s were insufficient for the exact chronological classification of the individual layers, so that new excavation work was started again in the mid-1990s. In 2002, an international research group led by Tanya King discovered undestroyed sediment deposits at the entrance and in the deeper area of ​​the cave, as well as animal remains and stone tools. Although few human remains have been discovered, there is strong evidence that the area was inhabited by hominini for nearly two million years .

Web links

Commons : Asych Cave  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ V. Doronichev, "The Lower Paleolithic in Eastern Europe and the Caucasus: A Reappraisal of the Data and New Approaches" in paleoanthropology 2008 S. 147th
  2. ↑ Exploration and Survey of Pleistocene Hominid Sites in Armenia and Karabagh ( Memento of May 21, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
  3. ↑ Quaternary Deposits at the Lesser Caucasus, The Armenian Corridor

Coordinates: 39 ° 37 '20.3 ​​"  N , 46 ° 52' 55.2"  E