Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-94fs2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T05:03:23.320Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Geophysical survey at Late Bronze Age fortresses: comparing methods in the diverse geological contexts of Armenia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 April 2015

Ian Lindsay ,
Jeffrey Leon ,
Adam T. Smith  and
Conner Wiktorowicz
Ian Lindsay*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Purdue University, 700 West State Street, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA (Email: ilindsay@purdue.edu; cwiktorowicz@gmail.com)
Jeffrey Leon
Affiliation:
Department of Classics, 120 Goldwin Smith Hall, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA (Email: jfl64@cornell.edu)
Adam T. Smith
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, 261 McGraw Hall, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA (Email: ats73@cornell.edu)
Conner Wiktorowicz
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Purdue University, 700 West State Street, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA (Email: ilindsay@purdue.edu; cwiktorowicz@gmail.com)
*
*Author for correspondence
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Geophysical techniques now available to archaeology have the potential to provide large-scale survey data that can map the buried structures of extensive and complex sites. Recent work at two Late Bronze Age hilltop fortresses in the mountainous volcanic terrain of Armenia provides an excellent illustration of their potential. Magnetometry revealed an unknown residential complex at Tsaghkahovit. Across the plain at Gegharot, where magnetometry was less successful, ground-penetrating radar identified terracing extending down the western slope of the hill below the fortress, greatly increasing the size of the occupied area. Combined with targeted excavations, these geophysical approaches are providing novel insights into the unusual political relations between fortress-based sovereigns and mobile subjects in central Armenia.

Keywords

ArmeniaTsaghkahovitGegharotLate Bronze Agegeophysicsmagnetometryground-penetrating radarhighland fortresses
Type
Method
Information
Antiquity , Volume 88 , Issue 340 , 01 June 2014 , pp. 578 - 595
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd. 2014 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Badalyan, R. S., Smith, A. T. & Avetisyan., P.S. 2003. The emergence of socio-political complexity in southern Caucasia: an interim report on the research of Project ArAGATS, in Smith, A. T. & Rubinson, K. S. (ed.) Archaeology in the borderlands: investigations in Caucasia and beyond: 144–66. Los Angeles (CA): Cotsen Institute of Archaeology.Google Scholar
Badalyan, R., Smith, A. T., Lindsay, I., Khatchadourian, L. & Avetisyan, P.. 2008. Village, fortress, and town in Bronze and Iron Age southern Caucasia: a preliminary report on the 2003-2006 investigations of Project ArAGATS on the Tsaghkahovit Plain, Republic of Armenia. Archäologische Mitteilungen aus Iran und Turan 40: 45–105.Google Scholar
Badalyan, R., Smith, A. T., Lindsay, I., Harutyunyan, A., Greene, A., Marshall, M., Monahan, B. & Hovsepyan, R.. In press. A preliminary report on the 2008, 2010, and 2011 investigations of Project ArAGATS on the Tsaghkahovit Plain, Republic of Armenia. Archäologische Mitteilungen aus Iran und Turan.Google Scholar
Clay, R.B. 2001. Complementary geophysical survey techniques: why two ways are always better than one. Southeastern Archaeology 20: 31–43.Google Scholar
Conyers, L.B. 2010. Ground-penetrating radar for anthropological research. Antiquity 84: 1–11.Google Scholar
Conyers, L.B.&D. Goodman. 1997. Ground-penetrating radar: an introduction for archaeologists. Lanham (MD): AltaMira.Google Scholar
Conyers, L.B. & Leckebusch, J.. 2010. Geophysical archaeology research agendas for the future: some ground-penetrating radar examples. Archaeological Prospection 17: 117–23. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/arp.379 Google Scholar
Gaffney, C. & Gator, J.. 2003. Revealing the buried past: geophysics for archaeologists. Stroud: Tempus.Google Scholar
Gaffney, C., Gaffney, V., Neubauer, W., Baldwin, E., Chapman, H., Garwood, P., Moulden, H., Sparrow, T., Bates, R., L¨ocker, K., Hinterleitner, A., Trinks, I., Nau, E., Zitz, T., Floery, S., Verhoeven, G. & Doneus, M.. 2012. The Stonehenge Hidden Landscapes project. Archaeological Prospection 19: 147–55. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/arp.1422 Google Scholar
Giese, S., Gruberty, A. & Hübner, C.. 2007. Geoinformatics as a tool for archaeological prospection: geomagnetic mapping in the prehistoric settlement ‘Udabno 1’ (Kachetia, Georgia). Zeitschrift der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Geowissenschaften 158: 177–82. http://dx.doi.org/ 10.1127/1860-1804/2007/0158-0177 Google Scholar
Goodman, D., Nishimura, Y., Hongo, H. & Higashi, N.. 2006. Correcting for topography and the tilt of ground-penetrating radar antennae. Archaeological Prospection 13: 157–61. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/arp.284 Google Scholar
Henry, E. R. 2011. A multistage geophysical approach to detecting and interpreting archaeological features at the Lebus Circle, Bourbon County, Kentucky. Archaeological Prospection 18: 231–44. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/arp.418 Google Scholar
Hinz, E. A., Ferguson, J. F., Pellerin, L. & Ramenofsky., A.F. 2008. A geophysical investigation of subsurface structures and Quaternary geology at San Marcos Pueblo, New Mexico. Archaeological Prospection 15: 247–65. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/arp.337 Google Scholar
Karakhanian, A. 2000. Remote sensing and geological studies of the Bronze Age monuments of the Tsaghkahovit depression: probabilistic model of spatial distribution and functionality of archaeological monuments. Report produced for the Georisk Scientific Research Company, Yerevan, Armenia.Google Scholar
Karakhanian, A., Djrbashian, R., Trifonov, V., Philip, H., Arakelian, S. & Avagian, A.. 2002. Holocene-historical volcanism and active faults as natural risk factors for Armenia and adjacent countries. Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research 113: 319–44. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/ S0377-0273(01)00264-5 Google Scholar
Khatchadourian, L. 2008. Social logics under empire: the Armenian ‘highland satrapy’ and Achaemenid rule, ca. 600-300 BC. Unpublished PhD dissertation, University of Michigan.Google Scholar
Kvamme, K.L., Johnson, J. K. &Haley., B.S. 2006. Multiple methods surveys: case studies, in Johnson, J. K. (ed.) Remote sensing in archaeology: an explicitly North American perspective: 251–67. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press.Google Scholar
Lindsay, I. 2006. Late Bronze Age power dynamics in southern Caucasia: a community perspective on political landscapes. Unpublished PhD dissertation, University of California, Santa Barbara.Google Scholar
Lindsay, I. 2007. The Tsaghkahovit South Lower Town, Armenia: recent excavations at a Late Bronze Age fortress settlement, in Popova, L., Hartley, C. & Smith, A. T. (ed.) Social orders and social landscapes: proceedings of the 2005 University of Chicago conference on Eurasian archaeology: 253–75. Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Cambridge Scholars.Google Scholar
Lindsay, I. 2011. Holding down the fort: landscape production and the sociopolitical dynamics of Late Bronze Age fortress regimes in the southern Caucasus, in Johansen, P. G. & Bauer, A. M. (ed.) The archaeology of politics: the materiality of political practice and action in the past: 151–85. Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Cambridge Scholars.Google Scholar
Lindsay, I. &Smith., A.T. 2006. A history of archaeology in the republic of Armenia. Journal of Field Archaeology 31: 165–84.Google Scholar
Lindsay, I., Minc, L., Descantes, C., R.J. Speakman &Glascock., M.D. 2008. Exchange patterns, boundary formation, and sociopolitical change in Late Bronze Age southern Caucasia: preliminary results from a pottery provenance study in northwestern Armenia. Journal of Archaeological Science 35: 1673–82. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2007.11.010 Google Scholar
Lindsay, I., Smith, A. T. & Badalyan, R.. 2010. Magnetic survey in the investigation of sociopolitical change at a Late Bronze Age fortress settlement in northwestern Armenia. Archaeological Prospection 17: 15–27. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/arp.369 Google Scholar
Masini, N., Rizzo, E., Lasaponara, R. & Orefici, G.. 2008. Integrated remote sensing techniques for the detection of buried archaeological adobe structures: preliminary results in Cahuachi (Peru). Advances in Geosciences 19: 75–82. http://dx.doi.org/10.5194/ adgeo-19-75-2008 Google Scholar
Melnikov, A. V. &Smekalova., T.N. 1987. Archeologo-geofizicheskoe issledovanie pamyatnikov Prichernomorya, Podvinya i Armenii [Archaeological-geophysical investigation of monuments of the northern Black Sea coast region, Dvina River and Armenia], in Stanjukovic, A. (ed.) Metody estestvennych nauk v archeologii [Methods of natural sciences in archaeology]: 107–14. Moskva: Nauka.Google Scholar
Melnikov, A.V., Arytyunyan, V. B., Smekalova, T.N. & Bocharov., M.M. 1984. Opyt ispolzovaniya magnitorazvedki v uslovayakh vysokomagnitnogo fona na archeologicheskikh pamyatnikakh Armenii [The experience of using magnetic prospecting in the conditions of highly magnetic background on archaeological sites of Armenia], in Poletaev, V.E.E. (ed.) Kompleksnye metody v izuchenii istorii s drevneishikh vremen do nahikh dnei [Complex methods of investigations of history from antiquity to our days]: 97–99. Moskva: Nauka.Google Scholar
Mohamed-Ali, M. A., Herbich, T., Grzymski, K. & Hobbs, R.. 2012. Magnetic gradient and electrical resistivity tomography surveys in Meroe, the capital city of the Kush Kingdom, Sudan. Archaeological Prospection 19: 59–68. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/arp.1415 Google Scholar
Nowaczinski, E., Schukraft, G., Hecht, S., Rassmann, K., Bubenzer, O. & Eitel, B.. 2012. A multimethodological approach for the investigation of archaeological ditches—exemplified by the Early Bronze Age settlement of Fidvár near Vráble (Slovakia). Archaeological Prospection 19: 281–95. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/arp.1434 Google Scholar
Sagona, A., Nikolaishvili, V., Sagona, C., Ogleby, C., Pilbrow, V., Briggs, C., Giunashvili, G. & Manjegaladze, G.. 2010. Excavations at Samtavro, 2008-2009: an interim report. Ancient Near Eastern Studies 47: 1–136.Google Scholar
Smith, A.T. 1998. Late Bronze/Early Iron Age fortresses of the Ararat and Shirak Plains, Armenia: typological considerations. Ancient Civilizations from Scythia to Siberia 5: 73–97.Google Scholar
Smith, A.T. 2005. Prometheus unbound: southern Caucasia in prehistory. Journal of World Prehistory 19: 229–79. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10963-006-9005-9 Google Scholar
Smith, A. T. & Kafadarian, K.. 1996. New plans of Early Iron Age and Urartian fortresses in Armenia: a preliminary report on the Ancient Landscapes Project. Iran 34: 23–37.Google Scholar
Smith, A.T., Badalyan, R., Avetisyan, P., Zardaryan, M., Hayrapetyan, A., L. Minc & Monahan, B.. 2004. Early complex societies in southern Caucasia: a preliminary report on the 2002 investigations of Project ArAGATS on the Tsakahovit Plain, Republic of Armenia. American Journal of Archaeology 108: 1–41. http://dx.doi.org/10.3764/aja.108.1.1 Google Scholar
Smith, A. T., Badalyan, R. S. & Avetisyan, P.. 2009. The archaeology and geography of ancient Transcaucasian societies I: regional survey in the Tsaghkahovit Plain, Armenia. Chicago (IL): Oriental Institute.Google Scholar
Thompson, V.D., Arnold, P. J., Pluckhahn, T.J. & Vanderwarker., A.M. 2011. Situating remote sensing in anthropological archaeology. Archaeological Prospection 18: 195–213. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/arp.400 Google Scholar
Zograbyan, L. N. 1979. Orografiya Armyanskogo nagorya: opit orograficheskovo analiza morfostrukturi [Orography of the Armenian highland: experiment in orographical analysis of morphostructure]. Yerevan: Izdatelstvo Akademii Nauk Armyanskoy SSR.Google Scholar