Hacı Elamxanlı Tepe: Excavations of the earliest Pottery Neolithic occupations on the Middle Kura, Azerbaijan, 2012 By Yoshihiro Nishiaki, Farhad Guliyev,Seiji Kadowaki, Yui Arimatsu,Yuichi Hayakawa, Kazuya Shimogama, Takehiro Miki,Chie Akashi, Saiji Arai and ShahinSalimbeyov Schlagwo¨rter: Su¨dkaukasien, Obermesopotamien, Hacı Elamxanlı Tepe, Neolithikum, bemalte Keramik, trapezoide Geschoßspitzen Keywords: Southern Caucasus, Upper Mesopotamia, Hacı Elamxanlı Tepe, Neolithization, painted pottery, trapeze-arrowhead ˚ºþ÷åâßå æºîâà: ˇðåäìåòíßå æºîâà: ÞæíßØ ˚àâŒàç, Ñåâåðíà' ÌåæîïîòàìŁ', Õà÷Ł ݺàìıàíºŁ Òåïå, íåîºŁòŁçàöŁ', ðàæïŁæíà' ŒåðàìŁŒà, òðàïåöŁåâŁäíßåíàŒîíå÷íŁŒŁ æòðåº Introduction Our intensive surface investigation yielded abun- dant chipped obsidian and flint artifacts dating to In order to understand the origin and developments the Neolithic but very few pottery sherds. Moreover, of Neolithic farming communities in the southern the techno-typological features of the lithics sug- Caucasus, research of the S˘omutepe or S˘omutepe- gested an age earlier than the S˘omutepe-S˘ulaveri S˘ulaveri culture is essential.This Pottery Neolithic phase. In order to evaluate this estimate, the first entity is represented by numerous mound sites lo- season of excavation was carried out between July cated primarily in the Middle Kura Valley and is and August of 2012.What follows below is asum- known as the region’s oldest Neolithic entity since mary of the results of this campaign, which show its initial discovery in the 1960s.1 Although afew this new Neolithic site’s significance to our under- archaeological sites reportedly date from an earlier standing the origin of the S˘omutepe-S˘ulaveri cul- Neolithic or Mesolithic period, none have been ture in the Middle Kura. properly documented and published using modern (Y. Nishiaki and F. Guliyev) standards.2 Well-documented earlier Neolithic sites do exist in the Black Sea basin to the west.3 How- ever, they are distributed rather far from the Middle Geographical setting Kura and their relationship with the Neolithic enti- ties of concern here remains undemonstrated. Ac- The study area is located on the northern side of cordingly, the S˘omutepe-S˘ulaveri culture is regarded the Lesser Caucasus, where many alluvial fans are as the oldest Neolithic entity with the best evidence formed along the mountain foothills by rivers drain- to date of an economy based on food production. ing northward from the mountains (Fig. 3).The Research of its origin directly contributes to clarifying edges of alluvial fans are cut off by the main course the origin of Neolithic farming communities in the re- of the Kura River, which drains eastward and termi- gion. nates at the Caspian Sea. The area’s climate is warm The Azerbaijan-Japan joint archaeological mis- and humid today, with annual mean precipitation sion to the Tovuz region, Middle Kura, aims to shed of 300 mm; the monthly mean temperature in win- new light on this issue through intensive fieldwork ter is À2.3–6.5 Cand in summer ranges between at related archaeological sites (Fig. 1).The main fo- 19.5–31.7 C.5 The modern climatic type is sup- cus thus far has been the excavation of Go¨ytepe, posed to be BSk (cold arid steppe) to Cfa (generally one of the largest S˘omutepe-S˘ulaveri settlements in warm, with very humid and hot summers) following the region.4 At the same time, efforts have also fo- Ko¨ppen’s classification.6 Vegetation cover in the cused on locating Neolithic sites predating the S˘o- area is characterized by steppe, and the dominant mutepe-S˘ulaveri sites. During the 2011 survey in land use involves agriculture and uncultivated mea- the Go¨ytepe vicinity, one such possible site was dis- dows with great availability of ground and river covered. This site is Hacı Elamxanlı Tepe, situated ap- water on the alluvial fans. proximately 1 km northwest of Go¨ytepe (Figs. 2–4). The mound of Hacı Elamxanlı Tepe comprises an oval form measuring ca. 60  80 mindiameter, with aheight of 1.5 mrelative to the surrounding 1 ˝àðŁìàíîâ 1987. 2 Akhundov 2004. 3 Korobkova 1996;Kiguradze/Menabde 2004. 4 Guliyev et al. 2010;Guliyev/Nishiaki 2012a; Guliyev/Nishiaki 5 Data at Ganja, World Meteorological Information, 2013. 2012b. 6 Kottek et al. 2006. 2 Nishiaki et al. Fig. 1 The Middle Kura Valley. Map showing the locationofHacı Elamxanlı Tepe and related Neolithic sites plain (Figs. 4; 6).The mound’s locationnear Qovlar long found in surficial sediments aroundGo¨ytepe village, ca. 1.1 km NNW from Go¨ytepe, is in amar- were probably transported from either the Tovuz or ginal area between two main alluvialfans formed Zayam Rivers. by the ZayamRiver to the east and the Asrik River Several fluvial terraces have developed along to the west (Fig. 3).Although the Asrik River’s mod- the Asrik and Tovuz Rivers (Fig. 5).The relative ern channel has less discharge with an upstream height of the uppermost terrace from the modern catchment area of 146 km2 from the fan’s apex, the riverbed along the Asrik River is approximately discharge could havebeen much more extensive in 20 matanelevation of ca. 400 ma.s.l., whereas the the Pleistocene judging from the particle size and terrace along the Tovuz River is 60 mwith amaxi- rock type of sediments in the modern channel and mum valley width of 1,000 m. Suchadeep incision terrace coveralong the Asrik River. The long axis along the Tovuz River may have occurred during of gravels in the Asrik River is predominantly 10– the Pleistocene followingabundant alluvialfilling 20 cm (up to 55 cm at asamplingpoint near Hacı events in the glacial periods. Clear terraces are pre- Elamxanlı Tepe), and the varied rock type of these sent at about 4 mand 20 mhigher than the mod- gravels includesandesite, carbonate rocks and py- ern riverbed, which comprises severalalternating roclastic flow deposits. These are comparable to layers of gravels and sandy to muddy sediments. those in the Tovuz River located farther west. There- The modern riverbed is being impairedbygravel fore, discharge from the Asrik River has likely been quarrying, probably causing recent incisions afew affected by inflowfrom the Tovuz River catchment. meters deep into the modernriverbed. Abandonmentofthe Asrik River from this catch- In the late Pleistocene, rivers on the alluvial ment most likely occurred prior to the Last Glacial fans around Qovlar should have been sufficiently Maximum (hereafter LGM), perhaps in MIS 3–4 or active to transport coarse sedimentsfrom their earlier. Based on this, coarse gravels up to 15 cm mountain catchments where sedimentsupply from Hacı Elamxanlı Tepe 2012 3 Fig. 2 Hacı Elamxanlı Tepe. General view,looking northwest slopes may have been greater under glacial or peri- glacial environmentsthan they are today. After the LGM about 20 ka (MIS 2), several incision events occurred.7 These events are presumed to have partly coincided with the lowering of the Caspian Sea. Alluvial infilling could have also occurred in colder periods and the 20 mhigh terrace in the To- vuz River probably filled in the Younger Dryas at about 13–12 ka.8 The 20 mhigh terrace is also ob- served in the Zayam River east of Hacı Elamxanlı Tepe. The 4 mhigh terrace in the Tovuz River formed in the Holocene, possibly around 6–2 ka.9 The 60 mdeep Tovuz River valley suggests that the region around Qovlar was subject to exten- sive geological incisions at least after the late Pleis- tocene. This was caused by either the Caspian Sea level fluctuations, tectonic displacement by faults running along the Kura River, or climatic changes. The longitudinal profile of the Tovuz River shows a prominent knickzone at ca. 700–1300 ma.s.l. and the incision in the downstream alluvial reach with a straight profile should be associated with the pro- pagation of the knickzone or knickpoints. Fig. 3 Study area in the Middle Kura Valley. 7 Ollivier et al. 2011;Ollivier et al. 2012. 8 BackgroundisanALOS Ollivier et al. 2011. AVNIR-2 satellite image 9 Ollivier et al. 2011. 4 Nishiaki et al. 3 Fig. 4 Hacı Elamxanlı Tepe. Topographic map showing the geographic re- lationship between Hacı Elamxanlı Tepe and Go¨ytepe Along with the long-term incision trend of sur- roundingrivers in the Holocene, availability of water for humans on the alluvial fans may have changed. The rapid incision forming the 20 mter- race along the Tovuz and Zayam Rivers may have affected the watertable on alluvial fans. This base level decrease could have thus been linked to alo- cational shift of surficial springs on the fans. More- over, an associated decrease in surface water dis- charge from the upstream mountains could have occurred. (Y. Hayakawa) 2012 Excavation season In order to record the site’s entire occupational his- tory by defining architectural levels, an initial ex- cavationarea at Hacı Elamxanlı Tepe was opened at Square M10 (5  5 m) encompassing the highest part of the mound (Figs. 6; 7).For this purpose, our excavations recorded the stratigraphic positions of major architectural remains as key features for de- fining stratigraphicunits. This includes deposits and featuresrelated to the construction, use, and aban- donment of the architectural remains. To organize the stratigraphic relationships of various architectur- al remains and archaeological deposits, we identi- fied spatial units as ‘‘context,’’ which corresponds to adepositional unit (e.g., amudbrick wall, build- ing floor, pit fill, or cluster of artifacts) or an exca- vation unit (e.g., each excavation grid made on a buildingfloor for recording spatial distribution of floor deposits). Using contexts as aunit of strati- graphic analysis, we grouped them by building level based on their stratigraphic relationship with major architectural features. Artifacts, ecofacts, and other sampleswere primarily collected by contexts.