Life in the Valley: Isotopic Evidence for Year-round Sheep Pasturing at Gadachrili Gora, Late Neolithic Southern Caucasus

This study presents preliminary results of mitochondrial DNA analyses of modern and ancient domestic goats in the southern Caucasus in order to examine their phylogenetic relationship with modern and ancient goats. For this purpose, seven ancient samples were obtained from two early agricultural villages in west Azerbaijan (Goytepe and Haci Elamxanli tepe, dated to ca. 6000–5500 cal bc, the Pottery Neolithic period), in addition to five modern goat samples in the same region. In the study, mitochondrial DNA segments of the control region (216 bp for the Neolithic samples and 481 bp for the modern samples) were amplified, and phylogenetic analyses were performed using previously published reference DNA sequences. As a result, all the haplotypes found in this study were grouped in the haplogroup A of goats. The finding of the haplogroup A among domestic goats in the southern Caucasus in the early sixth millennium bc can be interpreted as part of the geographic expansion of this lineage from the areas of initial domestication to surrounding areas that include also South and Southeast Europe. In the southern Caucasus, the haplogroup A probably continued to be a major lineage among domestic goats since their emergence in this area to the present. In contrast, this lineage has not been detected among local wild goats including Capra aegagrus, indicating the external origin of domestic goats. This possibility is consistent with archaeological records that indicate sudden appearance of agricultural lifeways in the southern Caucasus and cultural connections with northern Mesopotamia. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Investigating early husbandry strategies in the southern Caucasus: intra-tooth sequential carbon and oxygen isotope analysis of Neolithic goats, sheep, and cattle from Göytepe and Hacı Elamxanlı Tepe

Late Quaternary fluvial dynamics and landscape evolution at the lower Shulaveris Ghele River (southern Caucasus)

Antimony (Sb) was utilised over several millennia as the prime material to opacify or decolour glass and glazes, as well as an accompanying element in copper (Cu) alloys. Metallic antimony objects are rare, and mostly confined to Chalcolithic Central Italy and to the first millennia BCE in the southern Caucasus. The innovation of antimony use in metallurgy seems to be confined to the southern Caucasus, and the invention of it might be even more specifically situated in the Great Caucasus. Preexisting knowledge of mining set the pathway for the initial stage of antimonial copper alloys in the first half of the third millennium BCE and for metallic antimony ornaments in the second half of the third millennium BCE. However, the first major expansion of antimony in the metallurgy of the Racha-Lechkumi district in the southern Caucasus (present-day Georgia) started around 1700 BCE, while its spreading in glassmaking occurred in the Late Bronze Age (LBA). Explanations that place antimony adoption within its broader social context are favoured over those that consider material or geological properties in isolation. A recurring theme is the importance of comparative analysis, both geographically and between the different pyrotechnologies, including the precious metals and glass industries, to explore how social, political, climatic and economic conditions affected adoption and innovation patterns. All these factors are considered to explain why the extraction of antimony blossomed in the Late Bronze Age in the southern Caucasus and to reconstruct a framework of exploitation, distribution/trade and use of antimony in the Caucasus and its neighbouring regions in the south and east.

The Structure and Dynamics of Dry-Farming States in Upper Mesopotamia [and Comments and Reply

Neolithic herding practices in the Southern Caucasus: Animal management in the early 6th millennium BCE at Masis Blur in Armenia’s Ararat Valley

To clarify assemblage patterns of overwintering ground beetles (Coleoptera: Carabidae) and other insect predators in farmland habitats for the purpose of proper land management to enhance beneficial predators, we collected carabid and other insect predators at eight plots including arable and fallow rice and vegetable fields and a bank of an adjacent irrigation pond in central Japan. In total, 159 adults and 268 larvae of 33 carabid species, and 178 individuals of at least 17 species of other insect predators were collected by the quadrat sampling method. In rice fields, both the number of species and no. of individuals of overwintering carabid beetles increased as the soil became dry and vegetational succession proceeded, whereas in fallow vegetable fields carabids decreased according to succession. Similar trends were confirmed in other insect predators. Variations of carabid species richness and abundances among the plots might be attributed to soil water content, vegetation and prey availability. In early-successional fallow vegetable fields, the larvae of the carabid genus Harpalus overwintered with high density; this appeared to be because the fingergrass Digitaria ciliaris (Poaceae), whose seeds were a potential food for Harpalus, were densely vegetated there. In a dry fallow rice field and early-successional vegetable fields, beneficial predators such as Dolichus halensis (Coleoptera: Carabidae), Agrypnus binodulus (Coleoptera: Elateridae), and soldier beetle (Coleoptera: Cantharidae) larvae hibernated with high densities. For proper farmland management to augment insect predators, it is desirable to maintain fallow rice and vegetable fields as relatively dry habitats and at early successional stages. Ploughing fallow fields in winter may reduce overwintering predacious insect larvae.

Situated on the left bank of the presently dry Hrazdan River in central Armenia, Masis Blur currently is one of the earliest recorded sedentary settlements in the Southern Caucasus. Excavations have revealed a deeply stratified settlement spanning the late 7th to the mid-5th millennium cal. BC and six major cultural horizons have been identified thus far. The cultural-chronological attribution of materials finds close parallels with the Late Neolithic materials found at the settlements of Aratashen and Aknashen-Khatunarkh in the Ararat plain and a more general similarity to materials found in Late Neolithic settlements in Georgia and Azerbaijan. The currently available radiometric data place the occupation at Masis Blur slightly before the other known Neolithic sites in the region; however, a more robust set of radiocarbon dates is needed to assess these findings with more certainty.

The regions of Central Asia and the Southern Caucasus have each acquired an elevated strategic importance in the new security paradigm of post-September 1lth. Comprised of five states, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, Central Asia's newly enhanced strategic importance stems from several other factors, ranging from trans-national threats posed by Islamic extremism, drug production and trafficking, to the geopolitical threats inherent in the region's location as a crossroads between Russia, Southwest Asia and China. Although the U.S. military presence in the region began before September 11th, the region became an important platform for the projection of U.S. military power against the Taliban in neighboring Afghanistan. Similarly, the Southern Caucasus, commonly referred to as the Transcaucasus, has long served as a key arena for competing regional powers. For much of the past two centuries, the Transcaucasus has been hostage to the competing interests of the dominant regional actors: Russia, Turkey and Iran. And this historical legacy is matched by the realities and vulnerabilities of the current security situation in the region. The three states of the Transcaucasus, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia, each face a difficult course of economic and political reform, systemic transition and nation building in a struggle to overcome the legacy of seven decades of Soviet rule. These two strategic regions also play important roles as “security sentries” along the front line of a dynamic U.S. engagement in response to the emergence of new non-state security threats. But both regions also face more fundamental internal challenges, ranging from an overall deficit of democracy, and the related predominance of “strongmen over statesmen,” to economic mismanagement and widespread corruption. These factors significantly impede the reform efforts of these states in transition, and seriously erode the still fragile security environment. It is this set of internal factors that presents the most daunting challenge, however, as the core fragility of these states cannot be effectively overcome simply through policies relying on enhancing their security or military capabilities.

Winter and spring habitats of the twospotted spider mite, Tetranychus urticae Koch, were investigated to determine the source of mites infesting seedling cotton crops. The two possibilities were that mites may overwinter in diapause in the soil or litter of cotton fields or they may overwinter on suitable vegetation. Few mites were found in litter or soil collected from fallow cotton fields in winter. Significant numbers of diapause mites were found in litter at only 2 of 15 sites. At one of these sites the abundance of mites in litter declined dramatically following cultivation. The cotton crops at these two sites were late maturing and, therefore, more mites may have been induced to diapause because of cooler temperatures, shorter days, and possibly lower food quality than at other sites where more typical, earlier maturing crops were grown. The contribution of mites that overwinter in the soil or litter of cotton fields to infestations on the subsequent cotton crop is not likely to be significant. Vegetation from within and from the borders of fallow cotton fields and from sites remote from cotton (>1–km distance) were examined for presence of mites in winter and spring. Remote sites were further classified as adjacent to permanent water (wet) or not (dry). Nondiapausing mites, actively feeding and reproducing, were found on a wide range of plant species (37) in the vicinity of cotton fields in winter and spring. Natural senescence of these plants in spring probably forces mites to disperse, often onto young cotton seedlings nearby, resulting in a pronounced edge effect in cotton fields. Mite abundance on weeds was far lower at dry remote than at cotton sites, possibly caused by the lack of a continuous sequence of hosts. Mite abundance at wet remote sites was intermediate between cotton and dry remote sites, probably because they provide a continuity of hosts for mites. Management of the weeds on cotton farms through winter/spring could potentially reduce levels of mite infestation of cotton seedlings in the following season.

Deciphering Neolithic settlement environmental selection strategies is vital for understanding prehistoric human-environment relationships. This study employs a multi-classification XGBoost model and SHAP analysis to accurately classify 432 Neolithic archaeological sites in Zhejiang Province (AUC = 0.93), effectively distinguishing environmental selection patterns across different cultural phases. The model’s feature importance ranking indicates that elevation, surface relief, slope, and water buffer zones are main factors influencing settlement site selection, though their impact intensity and mechanisms vary significantly across different cultural phases. Early Neolithic settlements (11.0–7.0 ka BP) favored high-altitude, vegetated river valleys supporting hunting-gathering economies, while mid-Neolithic communities (7.0–4.3 ka BP) shifted to lowland alluvial plains promoting rice agriculture. Late Neolithic settlements (4.3 ka BP-) expanded to higher elevations to mitigate flooding risks, coinciding with revived hunting-gathering practices. This study highlights the interplay between environmental and socio-economic factors in shaping settlement patterns and demonstrates the value of machine learning for archaeological research.

The decade of research concentrating on the area of Eastern Slavonia revealed an abundance of large and complex Middle and Late Neolithic sites. It changed profoundly how we perceive Middle and Late Neolithic settlements, including space, size and organization. The vast majority of these sites were detected through aerial reconnaissance and satellite image analysis. The observation of the sites was followed by intensive field surveys, which confirmed their attribution to the Middle and Late Neolithic period by surface finds. On those confirmed sites in the vicinity of Đakovo, Croatia, a magnetic survey was conducted on five sites, and the results confirmed the presence of large-scale Middle and Late Neolithic settlements with complex spatial organization and enclosure(s). The most complex remains so far are the sites Gorjani, Kremenjača and Topole, which we present in this paper, where one or two settlements remain covering an area of 70 hectares which is currently in the process of formal protection as a cultural landscape by the Ministry of Culture and Media of the Republic of Croatia. The special focus of this paper is the application of remote sensing in the detection, archaeological confirmation and protection of the site of Gorjani Topole.

Geoarchaeological and palaeobotanical evidence for prehistoric cereal storage in the southern Caucasus: the Neolithic settlement of Göytepe (mid 8th millennium BP)

Archaeological evidence for penned animals is increasingly used to indicate managed livestock. Advances in techniques allowing the identification of dung and urine-derived components in sediments have enabled the expansion of this line of enquiry. Corralling animals into settlements protected them from predators at night and provided more control over their breeding. Deposits associated with livestock management at Neolithic settlements across Southwest Asia sometimes contain bones of perinatal animals. Reviewing the literature, it is evident that these faunal remains are not systematically reported or preserved in all burial environments. However, their distribution may reflect different patterns of livestock integration into human settlements. The presence of perinatal remains at sites where early livestock herding took place has important implications. Not only are they compelling evidence for herd management, particularly if there is also evidence for penning deposits, but also death of livestock during the perinatal phase of life informs us about the health of animals in early herds. This in turn, provides information about the skills needed by early pastoralists as they developed animal management strategies and the possible effect of transmissible diseases as animals were kept together in closer proximity.

By the late fourth to early third millennium B.C.E., Kura-Araxes (Early Transcaucasian) material culture spread from the southern Caucasus throughout much of southwest Asia. The Kura-Araxes settlements declined and ultimately disappeared in almost all the regions in southwest Asia around the middle of the third millennium B.C.E. The transition to the “post–Kura-Araxes” time in the southern Caucasus is one of the most tantalizing subjects in the archaeology of the region. Despite current knowledge on the origins and spread of the Kura-Araxes culture, little is known about the end of this cultural horizon. In this field report, we argue that the Kura-Araxes culture in the western Caspian littoral plain ended abruptly and possibly violently. To demonstrate this, we review the current hypotheses about the end of the Kura-Araxes culture and use results from excavations at Nadir Tepesi in Iranian Azerbaijan. This article is also available as open access on AJA Online.