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RADIOCARBON CHRONOLOGY OF THE MESOLITHIC-NEOLITHIC SEQUENCE AT DAMJILI CAVE, AZERBAIJAN, SOUTHERN CAUCASUS

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 March 2022

Yoshihiro Nishiaki Open the ORCID record for Yoshihiro Nishiaki [Opens in a new window] ,
Azad Zeynalov ,
Mansur Munsrov  and
Farhad Guliyev
Yoshihiro Nishiaki*
Affiliation:
The University Museum, The University of Tokyo, Bunkyo-ku, Japan
Azad Zeynalov
Affiliation:
Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences, Baku, Azerbaijan
Mansur Munsrov
Affiliation:
Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences, Baku, Azerbaijan
Farhad Guliyev
Affiliation:
Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences, Baku, Azerbaijan
*
*Corresponding author. Email: nishiaki@um.u-tokyo.ac.jp
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Abstract

Current research indicates that full-fledged Neolithic societies emerged in the Southern Caucasus in the early sixth millennium BC, most likely through interaction with and/or the immigration of the Neolithic societies of Southwest Asia. However, the absence of late seventh millennium BC excavated sites has prevented us from being able to interpret the processes in relation to earlier indigenous foraging societies. The 2016–2019 excavations at Damjili Cave, west Azerbaijan, revealed a stratified cultural sequence of the key Mesolithic-to-Neolithic transition period for the first time. Its radiocarbon chronology identified a rather abrupt emergence of the Neolithic economy at around 6000 cal BC, at least in the study region, urging a reconsideration of the long-standing claim that some other form of earlier Neolithic society had existed before this. At the same time, the stratigraphic analysis of cultural remains revealed continuity in certain elements of tool manufacturing and use from the Mesolithic to the Neolithic. This complex situation shows the need for evaluating the degree to which indigenous foraging societies contributed to the Neolithization of the Southern Caucasus, rather than focusing merely on immigration models.

Keywords

Fertile Crescent of Southwest Asiafood production economyNeolithizationShomutepe CultureSouthern Caucasus
Type
Research Article
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 64 , Issue 2 , April 2022 , pp. 309 - 322
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Copyright
© The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press for the Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of the University of Arizona

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