Craft production at Köhne Shahar, a Kura-Araxes settlement in Iranian Azerbaijan

Abstract

Considerable investigations and studies, especially during the past two decades, have substantially increased our information about the Kura-Araxes cultural tradition of the 4th and 3rd millennia BC. Yet, fundamental questions remain about the social and economic makeup of Kura-Araxes communities that require further investigation. In particular, our knowledge about societal organization within Kura-Araxes communities is still very limited. Kura-Araxes communities are known as either pastoral/nomads or sedentary/agriculturalist that possibly were socially undifferentiated. In this paper, we present evidence of workshop units and craft activities from the Kura-Araxes site of Köhne Shahar in the Chaldran area of Iranian Azerbaijan. We argue that Köhne Shahar represents a craft production site and Kura-Araxes community with signs of societal complexity.