Iranica Antiqua, vol. XLVII, 2012 doi: 10.2143/IA.47.0.2141959 EARLY BRONZE AGE, NEW MIGRANTS AND THE BEGINNING OF TOWNSHIP IN AZERBAIJAN, NW IRAN BY Behrooz OMRANI*, Hamid KHATIB SHAHIDI**, Akbar ABEDI** (*Iranian Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization (ICHHTO), Tabriz; **Tarbiat Modares Univ., Tehran) Abstract: The current study is primarily based on archeological remains hence; introducing the Early Bronze Age societies; it propounds hypotheses based on a range of immigrations during the last quarters of the 4th millennium BC. A sub- sistence pattern has been defined by presenting modern geographical condition as well as ancient fauna and flora. After a brief introduction of Early Bronze Age settlements in Azerbaijan, the paper embarks upon evaluating the cultural remains, including architecture, pottery and metal works. An analysis of those remains helps to understand a range of social changes and settlement patterns of the Early Bronze Age societies. Last but not the least, the proposed study also tries to demarcate the settlement patterns of the Late Chalcolithic and the Early Bronze Age in Azerbaijan NW Iran. New data yielding from excavations and surveys eventually lead us to a new route of the arrival of the Kura-Araxes culture bearers into the East Central Zagros and the Central Iranian plateau from north. Keywords: Azerbaijan, Early Bronze Age, immigration, township, settlement pattern Introduction The Iranian plateau, which comprises an area of approximately 2,500,000 km2 from east to west, is a high land in West Asia that is bordered by the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in the west, the Indus river valley in the east, the Caspian Sea, Jeihun River and Turan Desert in the north and the Persian Gulf and Indian Ocean in the south (Mashkour 1992/1371: 9). The north- western flank of the Iranian plateau is in proximity to the Caucasus Moun- tains and Kura River boundary of Asia Minor, Caucasia and northern Meso- potamia that together includes a region of over 100,000 km2. With the current political division of the region into East and West Azerbaijan and the Arde- bil provinces, the northwest Iranian plateau is referred to as Azerbaijan. Dur- ing the Late Chalcolithic (LCH) period contemporary to Early Transcauca- sian II (ETC) in the second half of the 4th millennium BC, this region 94839_Iran_Antiq_47-2012_01.indd 1 12/04/12 08:26 2 BEHROOZ OMRANI - HAMID KHATIB SHAHIDI - AKBAR ABEDI witnessed an influx of newcomers from the north (Kushnareva 1997: 44-51), which led to fundamental changes in the material culture of Azerbaijan to the east of the Central Zagros and the west of the Central Iranian Plateau. The material culture of these immigrants was widely dominant, including new techniques and colors of potteries. Consequently, this region encoun- tered fundamental changes in architectural elements, settlement patterns, the appearance of professionals especially in metallurgy and pottery making and increasing social behaviors. Furthermore, traces of a public granary, defen- sive wall and internal hierarchy in some large, core sites could have neces- sitated powerful social management. With changes in the cultural and eco- nomic patterns of the plateau, post-Uruk trade outposts such as Godin V and Arslantepe VIA were gradually abandoned (Weiss & Young 1975: 1-5, 13-16; Young 2004: 648, 658-659). The bearers of the Kura-Araxes culture rapidly gained cultural and economic dominance and conducted trade trans- actions, but this culture too declined at the turn of the 3rd millennium BC. It seems that the Kura-Araxes culture declined primarily due to internal strife, pressure from neighbors and natural calamities, such as severe drought. Considering these facts, the current paper attempts to establish the set- tlement patterns and the dispersion of archaeological sites in NW Iran at Early Bronze Age (EBA) and highlights some of the fundamental changes that occurred in the LCH sites structure. The study reviews previous stud- ies at Azerbaijan (NW) in the form of archaeological excavations, surveys and data recovered in the aftermath of Iran’s Islamic Revolution. As such, new surveys at NW not only explain the causes of changes in socio-cul- tural patterns, movement routes of EBA communities and the possible rea- sons behind these movements; they also clarify the undisclosed archaeo- logical condition of eastern parts of Urmia Lake and help to complete the EBA chronological table of NW Iran and the archaeological map of Iran. Early Bronze Age and Chronological Problems of NW Iran Late Chalcolithic settlements in Azerbaijan contemporaneous with Hasanlu VIII, such as Yanik Tepe, Geoy Tepe, Tepe Gijlar and Tepe Ahranjan, underwent fundamental changes in their main cultural elements. Some of these settlements were intermittently reoccupied, but others were abandoned forever. With respect to the NW chronological table, the final phase of the Chalcolithic (LCH) has not presented a distinct time span (Voigt & Dyson 1992: 174-175 table 2, 176-178). 94839_Iran_Antiq_47-2012_01.indd 2 12/04/12 08:26 EARLY BRONZE AGE, NEW MIGRANTS AND THE BEGINNING OF TOWNSHIP 3 By studying previous excavations and surveys, this paper intends to determine the exact date of the end of the LCH, the beginning of the EBA and settlement patterns and considers the following research questions: – Did migrations take place in NW Iran during that time span? – What were the possible causes of those migrations? – Were the socio-cultural patterns of communities altered by those migra- tions? – What were the impacts of those migrations on settlement patterns? Need for Current Research Over the last three decades, the EBA data gathered through excavations and soundings of sites such as Ahranjan, Mavana, Kul Tepe and Topraghli Tepe of Hashtrud, Tepe Shiramin, Qale Babel Abad Maku and three other sites in the Khodafarin region have shed light on the natural, environmen- tal and economic subsistence of these communities. These data have also determined that the EBA people were confined to the NW and the Iranian Plateau and have identified their effects on local inhabitants. However, further study is needed in this region to reappraise the arrival routes of these people in the eastern Central Zagros (Young 2004: 658-659). The proposed research can also contribute to locating the EBA settlements on the Iranian archaeological map and identifying the eastern borders of the EBA culture (Kushnareva 1997: 45-49). As mentioned previously, it must be noted that Azerbaijan has undergone a political division, and the region has been bifurcated into the three prov- inces of East and West Azerbaijan and Ardebil. Careful examination of this region shows that most of the excavations and surveys point to the western parts of Urmia Lake. Little attention has been paid to its eastern flanks. Climatic Condition of the Yanik Culture There is fluctuation in the elevation level of the Azerbaijan region, which is variably located from 100m at Moghan Plain to 4844m at Sabalan Moun- tain. These variations of the land from sea level create wide climatic diver- sity. In addition, two large water beds, the Caspian Sea in the east and the Black Sea in the northwest, place Azerbaijan in humid conditions, as do the humid Mediterranean and Pacific zones. The average annual precipitation in Azerbaijan ranges from 250mm at the Araxes River Basin to over 800mm at 94839_Iran_Antiq_47-2012_01.indd 3 12/04/12 08:26 4 BEHROOZ OMRANI - HAMID KHATIB SHAHIDI - AKBAR ABEDI the highlands of the Iran-Iraq border. A large area around Urmia Lake has annual precipitation of approximately 300mm, while the average precipitation throughout the region has been estimated at 393mm (Omrani, B. 2006/1384: unpubl. PhD (EBA in NW of Iran): Tarbiat Modares University-Tehran). Evidence related to climatic change during the Pleistocene has been found through pollen studies of bottom sediment at the Zagros intermoun- tain lakes. Studies of Zaribar Lake and Sarab Niloofar in Kermanshah showed that the Zagros region some 6000 years ago had a dense oak forest accompanied by grasses that could support animal husbandry (Bottema 1986: 254-260; Van Zeist & Bottema 1977: 19-85). This scenario in northwestern Iran and the Zagros region appears to have begun declining in the middle of the 4th millennium BC (Late Chalcolithic), and the evi- dence suggests a shift toward unfavorable climatic conditions. The size of the LCH settlement in this region supports our understanding of the worst climatic conditions (Abdi et al. 2002: 69-70; Rafifar & Gorbani 2006: 44-48; Motarjem, A. 2009/1388: PhD Dissertation (EBA at Zagros region): University of Tehran). As an important natural phenomenon of NW Iran, Urmia Lake comprises an area of approximately 500,000 hectares. It was formed some 40,000-35,000 years ago with fresh water before it began saturating with saltwater some 8000 years ago (Shahrabi 1995: 47). A review of the water level of Lake Urmia during the Holocene shows that the water level of the lake (10,000-5,000 years ago) would have been lower than in modern times. This was probably because of a relatively dry climate (Jabarlooy-e Shabestari 2002: 23). It seems that at the end of the 4th millennium BC, the weather conditions improved and the level of precipitation increased. The increase seems to have been significant, as one of the Late Chalcolithic sites contemporaneous with Pisdeli, known as Haft Cheshmeh in the northern part of Urmia Lake, is now partially covered by water. This suggests a shift in the shore of this lake with the rise in water level in comparison to the previous era (Omrani, B. 2001: unpubl. ICHHTO report on survey of Shabestar district). Analysis of animal bones of the 4th millennium (contemporaneous with the Chalcolithic period) indicates both domesticated animals and wild ones. As such, there are traces of cattle, oxen, sheep, dog, deer, bear, wolf, fox and badger, as well as several species of birds (Bakhshaliyev 1997: 16).