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Communication Dans Un Congrès Année : 2020

Obsidian consumption at the salt mine of Duzdağı (Babek district, Nakhchivan, Azerbaijan)

Résumé

The salt mine of Duzdağı, located in the Babek district in Nakhchivan (Azerbaijan), was surveyed between 2008 and 2011, and excavated between 2011 and 2016. These operations have yielded an exceptional density and variety of archaeological remains dating as far back as the second half of the 5th millennium BCE. Among these materials, more than 200 obsidian artefacts were found, and geochemically characterised to retrieve their provenance. Our analyses reveal the use of at least ten different obsidian outcrops located in the Southern Caucasus and in Eastern Anatolia. If we consider the obsidian procurement patterns within a restricted regional context (Nakhchivan), this high diversity is not entirely surprising, as we observe it on the large contemporary settlement of Ovçular Tepesi (Late Chalcolithic). However, it is in stark contrast to the consumption patterns of the smaller sites located in higher altitude, such as Uçan Ağıl or Bülov Qayası. Whilst this contrast can generally be explained—in Nakhchivan at least—by the different nature of the sites (mobile campsite vs. large settlement), what could be the reason behind the high variety of obsidian sources in use at Duzdağı? Our hypothesis, which we will explore here, is that this diversity is a consequence of the attraction that the salt mine exerted upon the populations of the wider region during the Late Chalcolithic-Kura Araxes period.
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Dates et versions

hal-03005664 , version 1 (14-11-2020)

Identifiants

  • HAL Id : hal-03005664 , version 1

Citer

Marie Orange, François-Xavier Le Bourdonnec. Obsidian consumption at the salt mine of Duzdağı (Babek district, Nakhchivan, Azerbaijan). International Research Network Worlds in Transition: Migration, Innovation and Environmental Change in the Caucasus from the Neolithic to the Iron Age, Catherine Marro; Erwan Messager; Rémi Berthon; Giulio Palumbi; François-Xavier Le Bourdonnec, Nov 2020, Lyon (Online), France. ⟨hal-03005664⟩
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