Reconstruction of Particularities of Ancient Human Activity Based on Geochemical and Soil Microbiological Investigation of Sotk-2 Site (Republic of Armenia)

Abstract

The article presents the results of the first joint soil-archaeological investigations on the territory of the Republic of Armenia. The cultural layers of the Sotk-2 site, located on the southeastern coast of Lake Sevan, were chosen as the object of study. The Sotk-2 played a special role in the settlement system in the region, as it is located on the way to the Bronze Age gold mine. A multi-layered settlement has been recorded here, which settled from the early Bronze Age until the early Iron Age (with certain interruptions). However, only the Bronze Age layer was characterized by the presence of anthropogenic deposits, while only scattered artifacts identified other periods of occupation. As part of joint research, samples were taken from the previous excavated trenches at the archaeological site in August 2021 for laboratory analysis. Analysis of the chemical and microbiological properties of cultural layers made it possible, for the first time on the archaeological monuments of this type, to identify periods with the lowest and highest intensity of human activity, as well as to establish the infrastructural features of the settlement. The strongest anthropogenic impact took place during the formation of the Middle – Late Bronze Age layer. Places for cooking and household pits were localized, where an increased concentration of organic phosphorus, copper, manganese, lanthanum was observed, as well as high microbial biomass and lipase activity. In another site of the settlement in the layer of the Middle – Late Bronze Age, an increased concentration of calcium, strontium and magnesium was revealed, which indicates the possibility of butchering fish in this place. The lowest residential load on the Sotk-2 site, according to soil analysis, took place in the early Bronze Age.