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Areni-1 Cave, Armenia: a Chalcolithic–Early Bronze Age Settlement and Ritual Site in the Southern Caucasus

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Areni-1 Cave, Armenia: a Chalcolithic–Early Bronze Age Settlement and Ritual Site in the Southern Caucasus Areni-1 Cave, Armenia: A Chalcolithic–Early Bronze Age settlement and ritual site in the southern Caucasus Keith N. Wilkinson1, Boris Gasparian2, Ron Pinhasi3, Pavel Avetisyan2, Roman Hovsepyan2, Diana Zardaryan2, Gregory E. Areshian4, Guy Bar-Oz5 and Alexia Smith6 1University of Winchester, Winchester, U.K., 2National Academy of Sciences of Armenia, Yerevan, Armenia, 3University College Cork, Cork, Ireland, 4University of California at Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, 5Zinman Institute of Archaeology, University of Haifa, Mount Carmel, Israel, 6University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut The beginning of the Bronze Age in the southern Caucasus has been thought to coincide with the appearance of the Kura Araxes (KA) culture around 3500 CAL B.C. KA artifacts are known not only from the southern Caucasus but also from sites in Anatolia, Iran, and the Levant. Recent discoveries from Areni-1 Cave in the Vayots Dzor region of Armenia demonstrate that the origin of the distinctive KA artifact assemblage lies in the Late Chalcolithic of the late 5th to early 4th millennia B.C. The cave contains rich assemblages of desiccated botanical remains that allow the site to be precisely dated and that demonstrate that its inhabitants exploited a wide variety of domesticated and wild plants. It would appear that from 4000 CAL B.C. onwards, people used Areni-1 Cave for habitation and for keeping goats, storing plant foods, and ritual purposes; unusual for this time period are ceramic vessels containing the skulls of children. Keywords: Armenia, southern Caucasus, Areni-1 Cave, Kura Araxes, Late Chalcolithic, child burials Introduction found as far afield as Syria, Israel, and Jordan (KA The Kura Araxes (KA) archaeological culture (some- pottery is called Khirbet-Kerak Ware in the Levant) times termed the ‘‘Early Transcaucasian’’) comprises (Greenberg 2007; Greenberg and Goren 2009; Iserlis groups of sites in the southern and northeastern 2009; Paz 2009), and central Anatolia (Kohl 2007: Caucasus, eastern Turkey, and western Iran, and is 97–102). Indeed KA artifacts have been found on currently thought to be a phenomenon of the third Uruk and Ninevite sites in Mesopotamia and the quarter of the 4th to the third quarter of the 3rd Levant suggesting both trade and possibly popula- millennia B.C. (Areshian 2006, 2007). As such, it tion movement to those locations from the southern is approximately contemporary with the following Caucasus during the Early Bronze Age. cultures outside the southern Caucasus: the Late Despite the importance of the KA culture in the Maikop of the northwestern Caucasus, the Late Uruk Late Chalcolithic–Early Bronze Age of the southern and Ninevite V of Mesopotamia, and the late Pre- Caucasus, Anatolia, Iran, and the Levant, there is Dynastic and Early Dynastic periods of Egypt. The little consensus on the chronology of its appearance, KA culture is widely regarded as having a geogra- its economy, social organization, or religious prac- phically restricted heartland in the Kura and Arax tices. The chance discovery of an extremely well- river valleys (FIG. 1) (e.g., Kushnareva 1997: 49). The preserved Chalcolithic cave called Areni-1, also KA has a much wider geographic significance and known as Birds’ Cave, in southern Armenia, pro- greater cultural importance given that its distinctive vided a good opportunity to study these aspects of pottery, cult-related artifacts, system of pictorial the culture. Here, we examine data from excavations symbols, and some architectural forms have been at Areni-1 in the light of current views of the origins and nature of the KA culture, and offer conclusions on how the discoveries at Areni-1 might modify Corresponding author: Keith N. Wilkinson, University of Winchester, existing paradigms. We begin by examining cur- Department of Archaeology, Winchester, SO22 4NR, U.K. Email: [email protected] rent views on the origin and geographic distribution ß Trustees of Boston University 2012 20 DOI 10.1179/0093469011Z.0000000002 Journal of Field Archaeology 2012 VOL.37 NO.1 Wilkinson et al. Areni-1 Cave, Armenia: A Chalcolithic–Early Bronze Age settlement and ritual site of the KA culture. Then we describe the stratigraphy, KAZAKH- chronology, and material culture from the Areni-1 RUSSIA STAN Cave excavations and assess the significance of those GEORGIA data for the study of the formative period of the KA Rioni Black Sea B Io ri culture. Our findings suggest that the KA developed Caspian Sea AZERBAI- d CAL e K from a Late Chalcolithic culture prior to 3800 D e b u JAN tär ra ARMENIA T är B.C. Fira t Areni 1 x TURKEY Ara t N ri The KA Culture Mura e h Lake Van AZERBAIJAN The KA culture (or ‘‘cultural-historical community’’ (Nakhichevan) using the terminology of Kushnareva [1997: 44]) was Lake Urmia T N i first recognized on the basis of distinctive types of g IRAN r i SYRIA s IRAQ ceramic artifacts found in layers underlying some Kilometers Bronze Age tells and tepes (mounds formed as a 050 100 200 300 400 A result of the collapse of mudbrick structures) in the southern Caucasus (Kuftin 1941; Kuftin and Field Greater Caucasus 25 1946). Such finds were concentrated between the 30 26 Kura and the Arax rivers in the present states of 29 T’bilisì 21 27 23 22 28 Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Turkey (FIG. 1). 24 20 19 R 18 iver Their stratigraphic relationship with other prehistoric Kura artifact groups was first established during excava- 15 tions at Mukhannat-Tapa in Yerevan conducted by Lesser Caucaus 11 13 14 Lake 12 8 5 9 Sevan 16 Bayburtian (Areshian 2006). Since the excavations of 10 7 6 Yerevan 32 Arpa Kuftin, a broad variety of types of KA culture River 17 1 2 settlement sites have been investigated (Sagona 1984). Areni 1 4 These include densely populated tepes located on the 3 N River plains of river valleys (e.g., Mokhra Blur, Kyul Tepe Arax 31 Km 1, Khizanaant Gora, Kvatskhelebi, Yanik Tepe and 020 40 80 120 160 Norsuntepe), as well as low-density settlements with B Chalcolithic Kura Araxes National boundary Water body stone architecture tens to hundreds of hectares in KA-Chalcolithic Neolithic Rivers area high in the mountains (e.g., Gora-Amiranis, Figure 1 A) Modern political geography of the Caucasus; B) Gegharot) (FIG. 1). The presence of settlements in the Positions of major Late Neolithic, Chalcolithic, and KA highlands has been taken to indicate that there were culture sites in the southern Caucasus region. Key: transhumant aspects to the KA economy (sheep and 15Areni-1, 25Kyul Tepe 1, 35Ovchular Tepesi, 45Nerkin Godedzor, 55Masis Blur, 65Norabats, 75Mokhra Blur, goat bones predominate on many of the settle- 85Shengavit, 95Mukhanat Tapa, 105Mayisyan, 115Talin, ment sites), a logical conclusion given that mountai- 125Aratashen, 135Teghut, 145Aknashen, 155Gegharot, nous regions would have been inhospitable during the 165Leilatepe, 175Alikemek Tepesi, 185Gargalar Tepesi, winter months (Kohl 2007: 91). In contrast to settle- 195Toyre Tepe, 205Shomu Tepe, 215Didube, 225Sioni, ments, relatively few KA burials have been excavated 235Imiris Gora, 245Khramis Didi Gora, 255Kvatskhelebi, 265Khizanaant Gora, 275Shulaveris Gora, 285Samshvilde, and many of those that have been are located with- 295Arukhlo 1–3, 305Berikldeebi, 315Yanik Tepe (94 km in habitation sites rather than in separate ceme- south of map), 325Norsuntepe (374 km west of map), teries (Kohl 2007: 113). With the exception of very 335Gora-Amiranis (49 km west of map). Map by K. occasional rich inhumations such as at Arslantepe Wilkinson and B. Gasparian. (Frangipane et al. 2001), most KA burials are individual inhumations in flat graves or in small black-and-red ceramic style that is characteristic of the kurgans lacking any evidence for wealth accumula- KA culture might have originated in northeastern tion (Kohl 2007: 91). Anatolia and spread to the southern Caucacus KA artifact assemblages are both rich and diverse, (Kiguradze and Sagona 2003; Palumbi 2003; Kohl while it appears that there were several regional (Kohl 2007: 89), although Palumbi (2008: 42–49) has argued 2007: 89) and chronological variants (Kushnareva that this distinctive pottery was a late KA development 1997: 54–73). Pottery was handmade, its most and would not, therefore, be expected on early KA distinctive features being black burnished external sites. Whereas ceramic remains are numerous on surfaces with a red, pink, orange, or gray coloration of settlement and burial sites alike, metal artifacts are the internal side of the vessels and the presence of rare. Indeed very little metalwork has been recovered functional semiglobular handles or their decorative from strata predating 3000 B.C., and these examples are substitutes. It has been suggested, however, that the mostly knives and axes made of copper or arsenical Journal of Field Archaeology 2012 VOL.37 NO.1 21 Wilkinson et al. Areni-1 Cave, Armenia: A Chalcolithic–Early Bronze Age settlement and ritual site copper. Nevertheless, a few tin bronzes have been previously uncultivated land in the southern Caucasus in found on early KA sites (Gevorkyan 1980; Kavtaradze the 6th millennium B.C. He further suggests that the 1999; Kohl 2003; Peterson 2003; Badalyan and Shulaveri-Shomutepe people subsequently returned to Avetisyan 2007: 242–245). Anatolia and Mesopotamia or integrated with local The origins and nature of the spread of the KA are mountain-dwelling peoples in the southern Caucasus. not only important in understanding the Late Hovsepyan and Wilcox (2008) have instead argued Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age of its heartland that agriculture in the southern Caucasus was an in the southern Caucasus, but also for comprehending autochthonous development meaning that there need trade and migration networks in the wider Near East. not have been a population movement. Accord- There are various theories to explain the origin and ing to the 14C dates of Shulaveri-Shomutepe sites spread of the KA culture.
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