Exchange Patterns, Boundary Formation, and Sociopolitical Change in Late Bronze Age Southern Caucasia: Preliminary Results From
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Journal of Archaeological Science 35 (2008) 1673e1682 http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jas Exchange patterns, boundary formation, and sociopolitical change in Late Bronze Age Southern Caucasia: preliminary results from a pottery provenance study in northwestern Armenia Ian Lindsay a,*, Leah Minc b, Christophe Descantes c, Robert J. Speakman d, Michael D. Glascock e a Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Purdue University, 700 West State Street, West Lafayette, IN 47907-2059, USA b 100 Radiation Center, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97331-5903, USA c Archaeological Research Facility, 2251 College Building, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA d Smithsonian Museum Conservation Institute, 4210 Silver Hill Road, Suitland, MD 20746-2863, USA e Research Reactor Center, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211, USA Received 3 August 2007; received in revised form 13 November 2007; accepted 14 November 2007 Abstract In the South Caucasusdroughly the territory of today’s Armenia, Georgia, and Azerbaijandthe transition from the Middle Bronze Age (MBA) to the Late Bronze Age (LBA) is equated with fundamental shifts in settlement patterns, subsistence economy, and political strategies. During the mid-2nd millennium BC, nomadic pastoral societies that had dominated the region began to settle down and construct stone fortresses along the foothills of the Lesser Caucasus; these fortifications largely replaced the expansive and often opulently adorned kurgan burials as the most prominent expression of political dominance on the landscape. After a decade of intensive archaeological study at various fortifications, very little remains known about the political and economic relationships among fortresses on a regional scale that might improve our under- standing of the roots of these sociopolitical transformations. In this paper, we highlight the results of a recent neutron activation analysis (NAA) of ceramics from elite and non-elite contexts at a selection of LBA fortresses on the Tsaghkahovit Plain in northwestern Armenia, and offer some preliminary interpretations about political and economic organization and boundary formation. Most strikingly, the NAA data suggest that the fortresses on the Tsaghkahovit Plain appear to have isolated themselves economically from surrounding valleys, perhaps in an attempt to forge boundaries and legitimating ideologies attendant to new political formations that were quite distinct from their nomadic predecessors in the MBA. Ó 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: NAA; Ceramics; Political economy; Late Bronze Age; Caucasus 1. Introduction pastoralism, socially-stratified warlike societies of the MBA began to settle down and construct heavily fortified sites over- The LBA in the South Caucasus (alternatively Caucasia, and looking fertile agricultural valleys and plains of the Lesser Cau- in Soviet times Transcaucasia), was a period of pronounced casus (Table 1); this archaeological transition is particularly sociopolitical transition that left indelible marks on the archae- visible in southern Caucasia, a province of Caucasia along ological landscape in portions of what are now Armenia, Geor- the middle course of the Araks River drainage system in the gia, and Azerbaijan. After nearly eight centuries of nomadic central and northern portions of the Republic of Armenia (see Smith, in press, for a recent detailed treatment of toponymic conventions for the region’s physical and political geography). * Corresponding author. The dramatic change in settlement patterns coincided with E-mail address: [email protected] (I. Lindsay). monumental architecture in the form of hilltop cyclopean 0305-4403/$ - see front matter Ó 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.jas.2007.11.010 1674 I. Lindsay et al. / Journal of Archaeological Science 35 (2008) 1673e1682 Table 1 outside the Tsaghkahovit Plain, suggesting at least some level Abbreviated chronology of the Bronze Age in Southern Caucasia (i.e., middle of economic insularity and boundary formation on the plain highland Arax River drainage), after Badalyan et al. (in press: Fig. IV.1) during the LBA. While ceramic sourcing is our primary line Period Phase Horizon style Dates BC of evidence thus far, future studies illustrating the movement (approx.) of humans and non-ceramic archaeological materialsdfaunal Early Iron Age EI II Lchashen- 1000e800 and artifactualdacross the landscape will certainly be needed Metsamor 5 to determine whether this pattern holds for goods other than EI I Lchashen- 1150e1000 Metsamor 4 pottery. Second, at the site of Tsaghkahovit the local scale Late Bronze Age LB III Lchashen- 1300e1150 of production and consumption appears to characterize ce- Metsamor 3 ramic distribution at both elite (citadel) and non-elite (lower LBA II Lchashen- 1400e1300 town) contexts; in other words, sociopolitical status does not Metsamor 2 appear to predict access to exchange networks outside the LB I Lchashen- 1500e1400 Metsamor 1 plain. Middle Bronze Age MB III Karmir-Vank; 1750e1500 Before detailing the methods and results of the raw material Karmir-Berd; survey and chemical characterization study, we first introduce Sevan-Uzerlik the archaeological and geographic context of the study area e MB II Trialeti-Vanadzor 2150 1750 and provide background information on previously reported MB I Early Kurgan 2400e2150 Early Bronze Age Kura- Karnut-Shengavit; 2900e2400 ceramic sourcing results in the Tsaghkahovit Plain. Araxes II Shreshblur- Mokhrablur Kura- Elar-Aragats 3500e2900 2. The Tsaghkahovit Plain, Armenia: Geographic and Araxes I archaeological context fortress constructions, new forms of sociopolitical institutions, The Tsaghkahovit Plain (2000 m.a.s.l.) is situated in Arme- and new suites of material culture assemblages comprising the nia’s northwestern uplands (Aragatsotn marz), one of numer- Lchashen-Metsamor stylistic horizon. Lchasen-Metsamor ho- ous fertile plains and valleys nestled between the granitic rizon vessels characteristic of the LBA and subsequent Early mountain ranges of the Lesser Caucasus (see Fig. 1). The plain Iron Age (EIA) consist largely of gray wares with incised, is bordered by the basaltic northern foothills of Mt. Aragats nail-impressed, and polish ornamentation, which replaced (the highest point in Armenia at 4090 m), the southern slopes the black punctate and black-on-red painted wares common of the rugged Pambak Range to the north, the northwestern during the Middle Bronze Age. end of the Tsaghkunyats Range to the east, and the uplift sur- Within the Tsaghkahovit Plain of northwestern Armenia, as rounding Mt. Kolgat (2474 m) to the west. These formations many as 11 known fortresses and fortified outposts were built frame an area of approximately 190 km2 that comprise the during the LBA, and it is the intra- and inter-regional relation- Tsaghkahovit Plain. The enclosed landscape of the plain can ships of these forts that are the foci of ongoing investigations. be accessed via three geographic approaches, from the Aparan In this paper, we offer some initial impressions about the orga- Valley along Mt. Aragats’ eastern flank, from the west through nizing principles of LBA political economics in the region a gap between Mt. Kolgat and Mt. Aragats, and from the north through an examination of ceramic circulation patterns be- through a windy passage across the Pambak Range. tween the Tsaghkahovit Plain and neighboring valleys and The region’s complex geological history and composition how these patterns are represented among differing social make it a particularly useful place for chemical characteriza- strata on the plain. Our provisional interpretations are founded tion studies that rely on the identification of distinct chemical on results from an ongoing sourcing study based on NAA. One signatures of raw material sources. The southern boundary of important issue shaping the methodological parameters of our the plain is comprised of the large massifs of the Aragats stra- study is that there are no morphological or decorative elements tovolcano represented by a cenotypal basalteandesiteedacite among Lchashen-Metsamor ceramics that can be used to de- succession dating to 0.3e0.5 million years ago. The northern finitively tie the origins of vessels to particular territories; border of the plain, the Pambak Range, is formed by the Ge- nor are surface treatments useful in differentiating high status gharot intrusion dated to approximately 127 million years from low status wares. As a result, sourcing techniques that es- ago (upper Jurassicelower Cretaceous) and built up by clino- tablish the chemical and mineralogical properties of ceramics pyroxene-amphibole diorites, tonalites, quartz diorites, and are particularly valuable in southern Caucasia to see beneath granites. Along the Spitak fault and the adjacent areas of the the macro-level homogeneity of the assemblages and access Saralanj and Tsilkar Valleys stretches the Aparan suite dated how they are moving across the landscape. to 122 million years ago and consisting of paleotypal lavas The results of our NAA study lead us to two preliminary (basalt, andesite, rhyolite) and pyroclastic rocks. Over the conclusions with implications for our understanding of politi- course of its geological history, the Tsaghkahovit Plain depres- cal authority in southern Caucasia during the LBA. First, NAA sion was filled in by lava flows during the Middle Quaternary results from ceramic sherds and the raw material survey indi- and riverine and glacial deposits