ArmInfo. During dig at the Lusakert-1 archaeological site of the Stone Age in the Hrazdan Gorge (Armenia), an interesting discovery was made that reverses the established idea of the life of Neanderthals.
As Pavel Avetisyan, director of the Institute of Archeology and Ethnography of the National Academy of Sciences of Armenia stated at a January 14 press conference, geochemical studies showed that ancient ash found in the cultural layer of the monument was obtained as a result of human activity. The news can be considered sensational: earlier, as the expert explained, it was customary to believe that Neanderthals, unlike Homo sapiens, could not receive fire artificially. Meanwhile, studies indicate the opposite. The results of scientific work have already been published in the Nature scientific journal. Another extremely interesting find was made on the territory of the village of Lernagog (Armavir region).
According to Avetisyan, here, for the first time in Armenia, a settlement belonging to the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B, PPNB was discovered. The oldest settlements found earlier, as the specialist said, belonged to the Late Neolithic. Research in Lernagog is carried out within the framework of the Armenian-Japanese joint program for two years. According to Avetisyan, the work will be continued this year.