Satani-Dar

(“Satan’s Mound” in Armenian), the most ancient Lower Paleolithic site in the USSR, located on the southwestern slope of Mount Aragats, near the village of Pirmalak, in Talinskii Raion, Armenian SSR. It was studied by S. A. Sarda-rian, S. N. Zamiatnin, and M. Z. Panichkina from 1945 to 1949.

Many primitive implements made of obsidian and basalt were found at the top of Satani-Dar, including massive chips with irregular shapes, coups de poing (hand axes), crude chopping implements (choppers), and cores roughly disklike and cubelike in shape. Two complexes are distinguished on the basis of the stone artifacts: the oldest complex probably dates from the late Chellean (late Abbevillian), and the later complex probably dates from the late Acheulean.