Archaeological excavations have begun at the “Bears” (Arjer) cave in Armenia’s Vayots Dzor region on the initiative of the Foundation for the Preservation of Wildlife and Cultural Assets (FPWC).
The works are carried out jointly with the expedition of Yeghegnadzor Geological Museum.
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As a result of the excavations of the professional expedition, pottery and stone tools dating back to different periods have been documented, and the preliminary study of the surface material shows the presence of pottery from the Neolithic and Chalcolithic periods.
It has been documented that the cave was used from much earlier times than earlier thought, as evidenced by a few Middle Stone Age (that started 280,000 years ago and ended around 50–25,000 years ago) tools found. During the works, a large number of animal bones, a lot of ash layers have also been documented.