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RECONSTRUCTING FUNERARY SEQUENCES of KURGANS in the SOUTHERN CAUCASUS the First Two Seasons of the Azerbaijani-Italian Ganja

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RECONSTRUCTING FUNERARY SEQUENCES of KURGANS in the SOUTHERN CAUCASUS the First Two Seasons of the Azerbaijani-Italian Ganja RECONSTRUCTING FUNERARY SEQUENCES OF KURGANS IN THE SOUTHERN CAUCASUS The first two seasons of the Azerbaijani-Italian Ganja Region Kurgan Archaeological Region Project (GaRKAP) in western Azerbaijan Nicola LANERI, Bakhtiyar JALILOV, Yilmaz Selim ERDAL, Stefano VALENTINI, Modwene POULMARC’H, Guido GUARDUCCI, Lorenzo CRESCIOLI, Remi BERTHON, Valentina D’AMICO, Chiara PAPPALARDO, Sergio G. RUSSO, Lola HUSEYNOVA* Abstract The GaRKAP (i.e., Ganja Region Kurgan Archaeological Project) is a joint Azerbaijani-Italian project in western Azerbaijan that investigates the spread of the tradition of burying the dead in funerary chambers covered with circular tumuli (i.e., kurgans) in the southern Caucasus during a period ranging from the fourth to the first millennia BCE. This paper will present the results of the first two seasons (2018 and 2019) of the archaeological work performed in the two regions investigated by the project that are: the area directly north of the modern city of Ganja (i.e., the northern section of the Heydar Aliyev Park), where numerous kurgans of the Late Bronze/Early Iron Age are located; and, the steppe region of Şadılı-Uzun Rama along the valley of the Kurekçay, a creek affluent of the Kura river in the Goran- boy district, where the preliminary reconnaissance survey has identified ca. 205 kurgans dating back to the Kura-Araxes period as well as to a Late Bronze/Early Iron Age archaeological phase. * Corresponding author: Nicola Laneri, University of Catania and School of Religious Studies, CAMNES (Florence); [email protected]. We would like to thank the Director of the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography at the Azerbaijan National Academy of Science, Dr. Maisa Rahimova, for having authorised and supported this scientific project. Our greatest acknowledgements go to: the Italian Ambassador in Azerbaijan, S.E. Augusto Massari (as well as to Dr. Umberto Boeri), for the incredible support received before, during and after the period of excavation; to the Governor of the city of Ganja, Niyazi Bayramov, and the director of the Ganja office of Azerbaijan National Academy of Science, Professor Fuad Aliyev, for financial and logistical support; to the University of Catania and the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs for the financial support; and to the Archéorient laboratory of Lyon. We would like to thank Dr Zaur Hasanov (Azerbaijan National Academy of Science, Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography) for his help and support, Karen Abend who acted as the object conservator and the Azerbaijani student Vusal Gasanov, as well as Martina Costarelli (University of Florence), Salvatore ‘Elnur’ Scavo and Alice Mendola (University of Catania), who worked with us in the field. Anatolica XLVI (2020), 103-145. doi: 10.2143/ANA.46.0.3288921 © Nederlands Instituut voor het Nabije Oosten / Peeters. All rights reserved. 104 N. LANERI ET AL. INTRODUCTION (Nicola Laneri and Bakhtiyar Jalilov) A kurgan is a large funerary mound constructed in order to create a clear and visible element within the natural landscape in which the community of the living can connect with the histories of their dead ancestors. This funerary tradition originated in the Pontic area during the fifth millennium BCE and then spread from the northern into the south- ern Caucasus (Reinhold 2019) slowly becoming a typical landmark of the ancient com- munities inhabiting this region at least until the first millennium BCE when even the Greek historian Herodutus in his famous work titled Historiae describes the incredible tumuli of the Scythians (Laneri, Müller Celka and Palumbi 2019). Thus, in order to further understand the role played by kurgans in framing the funerary customs of southern Caucasian communities, the joint Azerbaijani-Italian project Ganja Region Kurgan Archaeological Project (GaRKAP) started in 2018 with the objective of continuing and supporting the archaeological work performed by the archaeologists of the Azerbaijani National Academy of Science in the region of Goranboy and the area imme- diately north to the modern city of Ganja (Fig. 1). The project aims to reconstruct the funerary sequence that developed in the creation, use and memorialization of ancient kurgans through a detailed excavation of a few of these tumuli as well as recording and publishing all the other kurgans previously excavated by the Azerbaijani co-director of GaRKAP, Bakhtiyar Jalilov. In particular, the project has been focused first, on investigat- ing the funerary sequence of kurgans located in the Şadılı-Uzun Rama steppe and dated to the so-called Kura-Araxes period (ca. 3500-3000 BCE), and second, the kurgans of Ganja city that are instead dated to the Late Bronze/Early Iron Age period (ca. 14th-10th cen- tury BCE),1 and finally, is working on reconstructing the ancestral landscape of the com- munities inhabiting this region between the fourth and the first millennia BCE, a period during which the steppes of western Azerbaijan were traversed by movements of nomadic and transhumant people coming from the mountains of the southern Caucasus and mov- ing towards the valleys of the river Kura and its tributaries. Within this landscape, Kurgan 8 in the Şadılı-Uzun Rama plateau represents an extraor- dinary example of a late fourth millennium BCE funerary tumulus constructed following the typical cultural milieu of the Kura-Araxes period in western Azerbaijan in which the mound of stones and dirt covers a large funerary chamber with a narrow dromos entrance sloping down in order to allow the deposition of the dead members of the involved com- munity within the chamber (Laneri et al. 2019). The excavation of the funerary chamber of Kurgan 8 has also confirmed the data available from the other Kura-Araxes kurgans excavated in western Azerbaijan (Mentesh Tepe and Şadılı-Uzun Rama region, Jalilov 2018; Poulmarc’h, Pecqueur and Jalilov 2014) in which the kurgan was used for a multi- ple deposition of the members of the communities accompanied by a very poor set 1 Four organic samples of seeds (found in a vessel), charcoals, and human bones collected within the funerary chamber and analyzed by the CEDAD laboratory in Lecce have given us a preliminary result that establish solid calibrated dates within a range 3660-3500 BC (Cal. 2s). Such dates would define Kurgan 8 as the most ancient kurgan of western Azerbaijan dated to the Kura-Araxes period. Further research will be published in the future with scientists from the CEDAD. RECONSTRUCTING FUNERARY SEQUENCES OF KURGANS 105 Fig. 1. Map of Azerbaijan highlighting the areas investigated by the GaRKAP project (thanks to Andrea Ricci). of funerary goods represented by vessels – i.e., small globular jars with a high neck and a slightly everted rim, and large hemispherical bowls both belonging to the Monochrome Burnished Ware pottery assemblage that is typical of a Kura-Araxes phase I cultural hori- zon (Palumbi and Chatagnier 2014: Fig. 1), a few bone spindle whorls, limestone beads that were originally part of necklaces, flint arrowheads and selected animal remains (i.e., horns and bucrania) recalling Mentesh Tepe and other sites in western Azerbaijan. Con- sidering the geographical context usually associated with metalworking starting already from the fourth millennium BCE, it is quite striking to notice the lack of presence of metal objects among the funerary goods of the kurgans of western Azerbaijan, but this might be related to an absence of social differentiation of the members of the communities of the Kura-Araxes I period, and, thus, a consequential lack of variability for the funerary goods deposited in the funerary chamber. Another typical aspect of the kurgans of the Kura-Araxes period of western Azerbaijan is the partial burning of the funerary chamber that has been considered as part of a unique termination ritual within the funerary sequence of the use of the kurgans of this specific period (Qaziyev 1969; Jafarov 2000; Jalilov 2018; Poulmarc’h, Pecqueur and Jalilov 2014). In the case of Kurgan 8, this act is clearly recognizable in the western section of the funerary chamber as well as in the dromos that were deliberately set on fire (see below), but no signs of human cremation were recognizable during the excavation. Finally, the chamber was covered with a thick deposit of dirt and stones creating a burial mound that 106 N. LANERI ET AL. mimics the natural environment through a metaphysical connection between the ‘below’ and the ‘above’, thereby transforming the mound into an axis mundi that grounded the nomadic Kura-Araxes community transiting this region within the high plateau of Şadılı- Uzun Rama. Of extraordinary importance is the fact that later, during the third millen- nium BCE, the burial mound was reused through the incorporation of two intrusive graves marked by the presence of one individual each, as well as the construction of a larger burial mound incorporating the earlier tumulus of the Kura-Araxes period. In particular, the ceramic assemblage found within the two graves (e.g., jars of the Black Burnished Ware assemblage) shows clear similarities with a Post-Kura-Araxes phase, and, thus, belongs to a final Early Bronze Age period cultural horizon (ca. 2500-2000 BCE, Passerini, Rova and Boaretto 2018: table 9). Of considerable interest in both cases is the presence of single individuals rather than the multiple deposition of the previous phase together with bronze objects as part of the funerary goods. Another objective of GaRKAP was to investigate the area immediately north of the modern city of Ganja that is instead characterized by the presence of small kurgans dated to the Late Bronze/Early Iron Age periods. In this case the funerary mounds exhibit the presence of single individuals accompanied by funerary goods (e.g., relics of grooved pot- tery assemblage) that are typical of this specific cultural horizon. However, most of the funerary goods have been repeatedly looted by illegal excavators.
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