Pleistocene to Holocene stratigraphy of Azokh 1 cave, Lesser Caucasus

[en] Azokh Cave is located in the southern Caucasus and contains a Pleistocene and Holocene sediment infill. The site is significant due to its geographic location at an important migratory route-way between the African subcontinent and Eurasia, and the recovery of Middle Pleistocene hominid remains in the sedimentary sequence during a previous phase of excavation. The stratigraphy of the largest of the cave's entrance passages, Azokh 1, is described in full in this paper for the first time. It is broadly divisible into nine units. Our investigations have shown that the stratigraphy splits between two spatially isolated sequences. The upper of these two sequences has proven to be fossiliferous and has yielded many types of mammal (macro and micro) fossils as well as evidence for human occupation. The base of this fossiliferous (upper) sequence is dated at around 300ka whilst the uppermost level appears to be largely confined to the Holocene (≈150 years bp).© 2010 Royal Irish Academy.

Disciplines :

Geological, petroleum & mining engineering

Author, co-author :

Murray, John; Earth and Ocean Sciences, National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland

Domínguez-Alonso, Patricio; Departamento de Paleontología, Instituto de Geologí Economíca, Universidad Complutense de Madrid-CSIC, 28040 Madrid, Spain

Fernández-Jalvo, Yolanda; Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales (CSIC), 28006 Madrid, Spain

King, Tania; Institute of Molecular Biology, National Academy of Sciences, 0014 Yerevan, Armenia

Lynch, Edward P.; Earth and Ocean Sciences, National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland

Andrews, Peter; The Natural History Museum, London SW7 5BD, United Kingdom

Yepiskoposyan, Levon; Institute of Molecular Biology, National Academy of Sciences, 0014 Yerevan, Armenia

Moloney, Norah; Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales (CSIC), 28006 Madrid, Spain

Cacères, Isabel; Institut Cataláde Paleoecologia Humana i EvolucíSocial (IPHES), Universitat Rovira i Virgili (URV), 43002 Tarragona, Spain

Allué, Ethel; Institut Cataláde Paleoecologia Humana i EvolucíSocial (IPHES), Universitat Rovira i Virgili (URV), 43002 Tarragona, Spain

More authors (3 more)

Language :

English

Title :

Pleistocene to Holocene stratigraphy of Azokh 1 cave, Lesser Caucasus

Publication date :

December 2010

Journal title :

Irish Journal of Earth Sciences

ISSN :

0790-1763

eISSN :

2009-0064

Publisher :

Project MUSE

Volume :

Issue :

-1

Pages :

75 - 91

Peer reviewed :

Peer reviewed

Available on ORBi :

since 06 March 2024

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