Holocene landscape and human modes of occupation in the Kura Valley (Azerbaijan)

Vincent Ollivier (1) , Michel Fontugne

1 LAMPEA - Laboratoire méditerranéen de préhistoire Europe-Afrique

Goy Tepe, 291 where they are dated to the Neolithic. This similarity between the two periods contributes to the discussion on the heritage of Neolithic populations to Chalcolithic ones in our area. The main raw material used is bone. Quite often people extracted this material from domesticated animals (ovi-caprines) at hand, but large ruminants , wild or domesticated, were also used. The selections, probably oriented by technical advantages , are quite systematic: metapods of small ruminants for awls, scapulae of big mammals for shovels. The main characteristics of the tools demonstrate a will to produce in a quick but efficient way: quite often tools are made on plain bones only lightly shaped, while rapid techniques are frequently used (percussion, abrasion). Part of the blanks obtained by percussion are probably the result of a proper, well controlled débitage: the blanks are fairly long and regular. We cannot exclude that others, with more random shapes, were collected from kitchen wastes. As has been observed on grinding materials 292 and in several areas of the site, ochre is quite often attested on bone tools. It would be useful to analyse this red material found on stones and bones and to determine, through a joint study by specialists, its possible uses and the links between two industries. Similarly, the discovery of bone shovels that were possibly used to work the earth needs further cross studies and experimentations. Part IV: Studies concerning the three areas of the Middle Kura Valley Bertille Lyonnet and Barbara Helwing With this section of our work we enter into the studies dealing with the three geographic areas of the Middle Kura Valley. In this part of the project, our specialists study and compare the material culture, or the landscape and geomorphology of the three places in order to detect differences and similarities and the chronological development. This phase of our research is just at its very beginning, and most of the time it was possible to work on only two areas and not yet on all the collections. Nevertheless , the project gives a hint at the potential of such studies, which will aid in a better determination of the local cultures, of their local development, and of their relations between themselves and/or with other regions further away. We will first present the results concerning the general landscape and environmental conditions, and then comparative studies on the material culture.

Domaines: Géomorphologie; Environnement et Société; Archéologie et Préhistoire; Géographie; Etudes de l'environnement; Milieux et Changements globaux; Interfaces continentales, environnement; Climatologie; Géochimie; Glaciologie; Hydrologie; Stratigraphie; Tectonique

Vincent Ollivier, Michel Fontugne. Holocene landscape and human modes of occupation in the Kura Valley (Azerbaijan). Archäologische Mitteilungen aus Iran und Turan, 2012. ⟨hal-01766619⟩