Areni-1 Cave, Armenia: A chalcolithic - early bronze age settlement and ritual site in the southern Caucasus

Keith N. Wilkinson, Boris Gasparian, Ron Pinhasi, Pavel Avetisyan, Roman Hovsepyan, Diana Zardaryan, Gregory E. Areshian, Guy Bar-Oz, Alexia Smith

Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

Abstract

The beginning of the Bronze Age in the southern Caucasus has been thought to coincide with the appearance of the Kura Araxes (KA) culture around 3500 CAL B.C. KA artifacts are known not only from the southern Caucasus but also from sites in Anatolia, Iran, and the Levant. Recent discoveries from Areni-1 Cave in the Vayots Dzor region of Armenia demonstrate that the origin of the distinctive KA artifact assemblage lies in the Late Chalcolithic of the late 5th to early 4th millennia B.C. The cave contains rich assemblages of desiccated botanical remains that allow the site to be precisely dated and that demonstrate that its inhabitants exploited a wide variety of domesticated and wild plants. It would appear that from 4000 CAL B.C. onwards, people used Areni-1 Cave for habitation and for keeping goats, storing plant foods, and ritual purposes; unusual for this time period are ceramic vessels containing the skulls of children.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)20-33
Number of pages14
JournalJournal of Field Archaeology
Volume37
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - 2012

Keywords

  • Areni-1 Cave
  • Armenia
  • Child burials
  • Kura Araxes
  • Late Chalcolithic
  • Southern Caucasus

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Archaeology
  • Archaeology

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