Objective Situated in the southern Caucasus, Armenia has always been a cross-roads and a land favourable to settlement, offering advantageous environmental conditions and an abundance of resources in raw material.A GIS, devoted to the history of this land between the Palaeolithic and 400 AD, will enable the establishment of an information base concerning periods which are poorly understood and will become, in the hands of Armenian researchers trained in the necessary technology, an invaluable tool for the enhancement of the cultural heritage of Armenia and for the development of new research into the periods studied.The gaps in our knowledge concern in particular human occupation in Armenia in the Upper Palaeolithic, the Mesolithic and the Neolithic. Surveys carried out in the north of the country, on the Shirak plateau in the west, and in the basin of the Araks in the south, will fill this gap.In order to follow the development of human occupation within the scope of the important climatic changes which affected the whole of the Caucasus in the Late Pleistocene and at the beginning of the Holocene, an accurate chronology will be established for Armenia through Ar/Ar dating of volcanic ash levels and U/Th dating on calcareous concretions.In the Chalcolithic and Early Bronze periods, the raw materials used are essentially obsidian, flint, chalcedony and copper ore. In order to better understand the dissemination paths of these materials and the diffusion of technological knowledge, a reference base will be established through the identification of different sources of raw materials by their chemical composition (isotope geochemistry) and their age (Fission Track dating); then the artefacts from different sites will be analysed to determine the deposits from which they came.During this stage, a young researcher will be formed in the advanced analysis techniques of isotope geochemistry.Geographical, geological and archaeological data integrated into the GIS will enable the creation of:- distribution maps of the archaeological sites of the periods studied in the programme- models of the environmental contexts chosen preferentially in the different periods, to evaluate the influence of and the changes in the environment during successive cultures; this model will also provide a base for determination of the probability of the existence of archaeological sites in regions not yet explored;- models for specific problems: the circulation of raw materials in the Chalcolithic and the Early Bronze Age, the way in which "central places" were established in the first millennium;- a cartography critical for the determination of zones to be protected in the case of territorial development. Programme(s) IC-INTAS - International Association for the promotion of cooperation with scientists from the independent states of the former Soviet Union (INTAS), 1993- Topic(s) 7 - Economics, Social and Human Sciences INTAS - INTAS Call for proposal Data not available Funding Scheme Data not available Coordinator Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique EU contribution No data Address Jales 07460 Berrias France See on map Total cost No data Participants (6) Sort alphabetically Sort by EU Contribution Expand all Collapse all CNR - National Council of Research Italy EU contribution No data Address 36, via Cardinale Maffi 56124 Pisa See on map Total cost No data National Academy of Sciences of Armenia Armenia EU contribution No data Address 15, Charents str. 375025 Erevan See on map Total cost No data National Academy of Sciences of Armenia Armenia EU contribution No data Address 1, Independence Square 377001 Giumri See on map Total cost No data National Academy of Sciences of Armenia Armenia EU contribution No data Address 24a, Bagramian ave 375019 Erevan See on map Total cost No data Russian Academy of Sciences Russia EU contribution No data Address 19, Dm. Ulianov 117036 Moscow See on map Total cost No data Université Blaise Pascal France EU contribution No data Address 5 rue Kessler 63038 Clermont-Ferrand See on map Total cost No data