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Document Details : Title: Settlement and Society in Naxçıvan Subtitle: 2006 Excavations and Survey of the Naxçıvan Archaeological Project Author(s): RISTVET, Lauren , BAXŞƏLIYEV, Vəli , AŞUROV, Səfər Journal: Iranica Antiqua Volume: 46 Date: 2011 Pages: 1-53 DOI: 10.2143/IA.46.0.2084412 Abstract : The distinctive red-black burnished pottery known as Early Transcaucasian (ETC) ware is found from the Caucasus to the Southern Levant during the Early Bronze Age. Despite its appellation, however, Western archaeologists have usually studied ETC pottery and settlements outside of its Southern Caucasian heartland, biasing our understanding of this phenomenon. The 2006 season of the Naxçıvan Archaeological Project (NAP) sought to redress this by initiating a survey and excavation project in Şərur Rayon, the site of the largest irrigable plain in Naxcıvan and a major route through the Dərəlyəz mountains. We were able to identify a variety of sites (including fortresses, tepes, cemeteries and the stone foundations of Medieval villages) and off-site sherd and lithic scatters in our extensive survey. NAP also conducted deep-soundings at two ETC sites, Kültəpə 2 and Maxta 1, in order to establish ceramic and radiocarbon chronologies of this period and retrieve archaeobiological data related to subsistence practices at these sites. The combination of material from the survey and the soundings provides a new chronology for the period; allows us to address questions about the role of agriculture and pastoralism in the Caucasus; and encourages us to consider hypotheses about the nature of complexity, heterarchy and communalism in the EBA. |
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