Материал: Current_Neolithic_Research_in_Armenia

If the cultures that developed in the centre of the Southern Caucasus, of which Armenia is part, are compared to those of the northern Near East or the neighbouring regions bordering the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, it is clear that there is a large gap in our knowledge of the beginnings of Neolithisation. Indeed, in the basin of the Kura, in Georgia and Azerbaijan, it is only at the beginning of the 6th millennium calBC that a culture appeared (the Shulaveri-Shomutepe culture) that possessed an advanced mastery of the domestication of plants and animals (Kush-

nareva 1997; Kiguradze and Menadbe 2004), whereas in the basin of the Arax the culture of Kültepe of Nakhichevan developed from the 2nd half of the 6th millennium cal. BC (Munchaev 1982; Narimanov 1987) (Fig. 1).

In Armenia, where ten years ago the Neolithic period remained very poorly known, the collaboration between the Institute of Archaeology of Yerevan and the French “Caucasus” mission enabled the discovery of two different cultures: a Mesolithic/ Early Neolithic culture on the eastern flank of the Aragats mountains (Kmlo-2 rock shelter) and a local variant of the Shulaveri-Shomutepe culture in the Ararat plain (Aratashen and Aknashen-Khatunarkh)1.

the wild or domestic status of the highly fragmented bones is difficult to determine. Only wild plant remains were found in this layer. The dating of Kmlo-2 is a difficult issue (Arimura et al. 2010), but excavations in 2009 and additional 14C dating indicate that the site was occupied in three different phases, 11th-10th millennia, 9th-8th millennia and 6th-5th millennia calBC.

The inhabitants of Kmlo-2 produced their tools from obsidian pebbles washed down by the Kasakh River from outcrops situated near its source (Tsagh-

trapeze-rectangles that probably served as barbs for arrows.

The most interesting objects for the study of relations with the neighbouring regions are obsidian tools with continuous and parallel retouch on one or both lateral edges, clearly executed by pressure flaking technique. These artefacts, original for Armenia and called “Kmlo tools”, are similar to obsidian tools found on sites of the 8th-7th millennia calBC in southeastern Anatolia and northern Mesopotamia (Çayönü, Cafer Höyük, Shimshara, etc) and called “Çayönü tools” or “Çayönü rods” or “Beaked blades” (Redman 1982; Fuji 1988; Caneva et al. 1994;

Mortensen 1970) (Fig. 4).

A use-wear analysis, carried out by L. Astruc (Arimura et al. 2006) on “Çayönü tools” and “Kmlo tools”, shows some differences between the two groups of artefacts. Although the retouch seems to be similar, the blanks on which they are made, the retouching technique, the wear traces, and the methods of rejuvenation are different. According to the use-wear analysis, no direct relationship can be established between “Kmlo tools” and “Çayönü tools”. Moreover, the geochemical analysis of 20 “Kmlo tools” has confirmed that all were made locally on obsidian from Armenian deposits (Tsaghkunyats, Arteni, Gutansar, Hatis, Geghasar) and that there was no import of artefacts or raw material from the northern Near East.

In Georgia, similar tools, called “hooked tools”, characterise a culture attributed to the early Neolithic, the Palu- ri-Nagutnyj culture, that developed on the southwestern slopes of the Greater Caucasus (Grigolija 1977). Similar tools are also found on the high plateaus of southern Georgia (“Paravani group”), where the large obsidian deposit of Chikiani was exploited (Kiguradze and Menadbe 2004: 353-357). Most of these Georgian Early Neolithic sites are found at altitude, several are rock shelters, and all have produced only one level of occupation; unfortunately, none

has yet been dated by 14C.

The chronological attribution of the “Kmlo culture”, characterized by the presence of “Kmlo tools”, has been recently clarified by 14C dating. The horizon in which the “Kmlo tools” appear has been dated to the first half of the 9th millennium calBC; these artefacts are numerous in the overlying horizons dated to the end of the 9th and to the 8th millennium calBC. They seem to have continued in the upper strata of the 6th-5th millennia calBC. This late date for the use of “Kmlo tools” is confirmed by the discovery of similar artefacts on other sites of the region, including the hunter’s camp at