Kültəpə
Municipality
Kültəpə is located in Azerbaijan
Kültəpə
Kültəpə
Coordinates: 39°16′13″N 45°27′07″E / 39.27028°N 45.45194°E / 39.27028; 45.45194
Country Azerbaijan
Autonomous republicNakhchivan
DistrictBabek
Population
 • Total1,859
Time zoneUTC+4 (AZT)

Kültəpə (also rendered as Kultepe, Aşağı Gültəpə, Gültəpə, Kyul'tepe, Kul'tepe, and Kultepe-1) is a settlement dating from the Neolithic Age, a village and municipality in the Babek District of Nakhchivan, Azerbaijan. It has a population of 1,859.

Research

In 1951, archeologist Osman Habibulla began excavation in the settlement, clarifying the stratigraphy and cultural strata of the area. The tell was much disturbed in the past.

As excavators had found, the town features a cultural layer with the total depth of 22 m. The earliest 9 m of this belongs to the Neolithic Age. Some Halaf culture artifacts have been found.

On top of that are the remains of the Bronze Age, and then the Early Iron Age.

At each of these layers a variety of artifacts were found: pottery dishes, cattle-breeding and agricultural implements, adornments, weapons etc.

In the Eneolithic layer the excavators discovered remains of buildings, as well as burial places. These buildings were round as well as rectangular-shaped, and were made of mudbrick. The diameter of the round constructions was around 6–8 meters. The rectangular ones are about 15 sq. m in size. These structures were typically connected with agriculture.

85 burial places were investigated in the Eneolithic layer. In 31 of those excavators found pottery dishes, items made of bones and stone, and beads.

Copper-arsenic

Soviet scientists decided that Kultepe (Kul'tepe) is the place where the first items made of copper-arsenic alloys, dating back to the 4th millennium BC, were found in the South Caucasus.[1]

The local method of arsenic copper production was confirmed by results of chemical investigation and casting forms and the remains of casting discovered there.[2]

Regional influence

Archaeological site Alikemek Tepesi is located in the Mugan plain along the Aras (river). Some archaeologists speak of the ancient Alikemek-Kul'tepe culture of southeastern Caucasus, that followed the Shulaveri-Shomu culture, and covered the transition from the Neolithic to Chalcolithic periods (c. 4500 BC). Aratashen (following level II) was also part of this culture.

The Alikemek–Kul'tepe culture covered the Ararat Plain, Nakhchivan, the Mil’skoj and Mugan Steppes and the region around Lake Urmia in north-western Iran[3][4]

Kultepe-2

Kültepe-2 is located about 1.5 km north of Kultepe 1, or about 10 km north of Nakhchivan (city) on the west bank of the river between the villages of Kültepe and Didivar. The site is nearly 10 ha in extent; it was occupied during the Early (Kura-Araxes culture), and Middle Bronze Age.

Osman Abibullaev first investigated this location in 1962, as part of his work on Kültepe-1. In 2006, the Naxçivan Archaeological Project started to investigate the site again.

The Kura-Araxes town may have been c. 5 hectares, and over the later period the settlement extended to the full 10 ha, so this is a very large site in the area.[5]

Nakhchivan Tepe

Nakhchivan Tepe is yet another important Chalcolithic settlement in the area that is dated to the first half of the 5th millennium BC. It is located about 5km south of the Kultepe site.[6] Nakhchivan Tepe is an archaeological site where the painted ceramics of the Dalma culture have been found. It is located on the right bank of the Nakhchivançay river at the altitude of 850m. Excavations were carried out here in 2017; investigations show that the inhabitants practised cattle and caprine herding for their subsistence.

The settlements in the Lake Urmiah basin traded the obsidian from the deposits of the Zangezur mountain range, and Nakhchivan was the intermediary. Also some copper ore was found at Nakhchivan Tepe which also originated at Zangezur mountains.[7]

Uzun oba is another similar chalcolithic site in the area.

Other monuments

There was a 17th-century Armenian church (St. Hripsime Church) located in the center of the village.[8] The church was destroyed at some point between 1997 and 2009.[8]

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Kultepe I.

References

  1. ↑ "Всеобщая история химии. М.: Наука, 1980, 399". Archived from the original on 2013-02-13. Retrieved 2012-09-24.
  2. ↑ [Селимханов И. Р., Торосян Р. M. Металлографический анализ древнейших металлов в Закавказье.- Советская археология, 1969, ј 3, с. 229-294]
  3. ↑ Kushnareva 1997, p. 33
  4. ↑ Antoine Courcier, Ancient Metallurgy in the Caucasus From the Sixth to the Third Millennium BCE. 2014
  5. ↑ Kültepe 2 - Nakhchivan Archaeological Project - oglanqala.net
  6. ↑ See area map here; in Veli Bakhshaliyev 2021, Archaeological investigations at Nakhchivan Tepe.
  7. ↑ Veli Bakhshaliyev 2021, Archaeological investigations at Nakhchivan Tepe.
  8. 1 2 Khatchadourian, Lori; Smith, Adam T.; Ghulyan, Husik; Lindsay, Ian (2022). Silent Erasure: A Satellite Investigation of the Destruction of Armenian Heritage in Nakhchivan, Azerbaijan. Cornell Institute of Archaeology and Material Studies: Ithaca, NY. pp. 334–337. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2022-09-24.

Literature

  • Абибуллаев О. А. Некоторые итоги изучения холма Кюльтепе в Азербайджане, СА, 1963.
  • Абибуллаев О. А. Энеолит и бронза на территории Нахчыванской АССР, Баку, 1983.
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