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Fig 1: Map of Southwest Asia and the Caucasus.

In 2006, Dr. Lauren Ristvet and Dr. Steve Rapp from Georgia State University, Dr. Safar Ashurov from the National Academy of Sciences, Baku, and Dr. Veli Baxshaliyev from the National Academy of Sciences, Naxçivan began a joint archaeological project in Naxçivan Autonomous Republic, Azerbaijan, an area of approximately 5500 km2 bounded on the south and west by Iran and Turkey (the Araxes/Aras River marks the boundary) and on the north and east by Armenia .

Fig 2: Landsat 7, visible color close up of Sharur Rayon, Naxçivan

The primary goal of this project is to investigate the interplay between nomads, sedentary societies, and political power in southern Caucasia from the origins of agriculture to the late Medieval period. Unlike in neighboring countries—Iran, Turkey, Armenia, and Georgia—very little archaeological work has been conducted in Azerbaijan in general and Naxçivan in particular, making it, in the words of a recent essay terra incognita for Near Eastern Archaeology (Schachner 2001).

Figure 3: Sheep grazing north of Kültepe 2.

Yet Naxçivan's position on the north-eastern frontier of Greater Mesopotamia makes it an ideal place to study secondary and tertiary state formation and the interaction of steppe/nomadic societies, indigenous village societies and external empires (particularly Urartu and Achaemenid Persia). Moreover, in the words of this province's first and foremost explorer, the late archaeologist Osman Abibullaev, Naxçivan is “saturated with diverse monuments of material culture” (1982: 6).

Fig 4: Landsat 7 ETM image, June 6, 2002 of West Naxçivan showing the survey boarders of the Sharur Rayon Regional Survey and the location of Kültepe 2 and Maxta 1.

Our work in the summer of 2006 sought to lay a foundation for a long term collaborative project between American and Azerbaijani scientists. First, we initiated an archaeological survey of the Arpaçay in Sharur Rayon in western Naxçivan, where we visited 45 "sites" along this wadi ranging in age from the Eneolithic to the Medieval period. These "sites" included sherd and lithic scatters, cemeteries, fortresses and tepes. Second, we excavated 2X2m soundings at two mounds (tepes, tells), Kültepe 2 and Maxta 1, that were inhabited throughout the Kura-Araxes period (ca. 3500-2500 BC). We collected radiocarbon samples from both sites, which we have submitted to the CAIS (the Center for Applied Isotope Studies) at the University of Georgia. As there are no reliable radiocarbon dates from this period in Naxçivan, these samples will help to define a regional absolute chronology for a poorly-understood period.

Figure 5: Kültepe 2, view of Naxçivançay and Ilan Dag to the east.

In summer 2007, Lauren Ristvet, Safar Ashurov, Veli Baxshaliyev and American and Azerbaijani students will return to Naxçivan to continue our survey. Fieldwork will focus on mapping the enormous first millennium fortress site of Oglanqala, surveying other fortress sites along the Arpaçay, and beginning an intensive walking survey of five areas in the desert uplands to record pastoral sites and the mortuary landscape.

Works Cited

Abibullaev, O. 1982. Eneolit i bronza na territorii Nakhichevanskoi ASSR. Baku: Izd-vo Elm.

Schachner, A. 2001. “'Azerbaycan: Eine terra incognita der Vorderasiatischen Archäologie,'”, Mitteilungen der Deutschen Orient-Gesellschaft, 133: 251-332.