Research into the Neolithization of the Southern Caucasus has entered a new stage in the 2000s, w... more Research into the Neolithization of the Southern Caucasus has entered a new stage in the 2000s, with a remarkable increase in international archaeological investigations employing cutting-edge feld techniques and related laboratory studies. Current research indicates that full-fledged Neolithic societies emerged in the Southern Caucasus in the early sixth millennium BC, most likely through interaction with Neolithic societies of Southwest Asia. Neolithization took place in the southern Caucasus at the beginning of the sixth millennium BC, most likely as part of the expansion of the Neolithic socioeconomy from the Middle East, where the food production economy had been established at least a few thousand years earlier. However, local adaptation and indigenous cultural development are also likely to have played important roles in this process, by which distinct Neolithic ways of life emerged in the southern Caucasus. Tis article reports on 46 radiocarbon dates obtained from the two rec...
Despite the localisation of the southern Caucasus at the outskirt of the Fertile Crescent, the Ne... more Despite the localisation of the southern Caucasus at the outskirt of the Fertile Crescent, the Neolithisation process started there only at the beginning of the sixth millennium with the Shomutepe-Shulaveri culture of yet unclear origins. We present here genomic data for three new individuals from Mentesh Tepe in Azerbaijan, dating back to the beginnings of the Shomutepe-Shulaveri culture. We evidence that two juveniles, buried embracing each other, were brothers. We show that the Mentesh Tepe Neolithic population is the product of a recent gene flow between the Anatolian farmer-related population and the Caucasus/Iranian population, demonstrating that population admixture was at the core of the development of agriculture in the South Caucasus. By comparing Bronze Age individuals from the South Caucasus with Neolithic individuals from the same region, including Mentesh Tepe, we evidence that gene flows between Pontic Steppe populations and Mentesh Tepe-related groups contributed to ...
Archaeological and archaeogenetic evidence points to the Pontic–Caspian steppe zone between the C... more Archaeological and archaeogenetic evidence points to the Pontic–Caspian steppe zone between the Caucasus and the Black Sea as the crucible from which the earliest steppe pastoralist societies arose and spread, ultimately influencing populations from Europe to Inner Asia. However, little is known about their economic foundations and the factors that may have contributed to their extensive mobility. Here, we investigate dietary proteins within the dental calculus proteomes of 45 individuals spanning the Neolithic to Greco-Roman periods in the Pontic–Caspian Steppe and neighbouring South Caucasus, Oka–Volga–Don and East Urals regions. We find that sheep dairying accompanies the earliest forms of Eneolithic pastoralism in the North Caucasus. During the fourth millennium bc, Maykop and early Yamnaya populations also focused dairying exclusively on sheep while reserving cattle for traction and other purposes. We observe a breakdown in livestock specialization and an economic diversificati...
Research into the Neolithization of the Southern Caucasus has entered a new stage in the 2000s, w... more Research into the Neolithization of the Southern Caucasus has entered a new stage in the 2000s, with a remarkable increase in international archaeological investigations employing cutting-edge feld techniques and related laboratory studies. Current research indicates that full-fledged Neolithic societies emerged in the Southern Caucasus in the early sixth millennium BC, most likely through interaction with Neolithic societies of Southwest Asia. Neolithization took place in the southern Caucasus at the beginning of the sixth millennium BC, most likely as part of the expansion of the Neolithic socioeconomy from the Middle East, where the food production economy had been established at least a few thousand years earlier. However, local adaptation and indigenous cultural development are also likely to have played important roles in this process, by which distinct Neolithic ways of life emerged in the southern Caucasus. Tis article reports on 46 radiocarbon dates obtained from the two rec...
Despite the localisation of the southern Caucasus at the outskirt of the Fertile Crescent, the Ne... more Despite the localisation of the southern Caucasus at the outskirt of the Fertile Crescent, the Neolithisation process started there only at the beginning of the sixth millennium with the Shomutepe-Shulaveri culture of yet unclear origins. We present here genomic data for three new individuals from Mentesh Tepe in Azerbaijan, dating back to the beginnings of the Shomutepe-Shulaveri culture. We evidence that two juveniles, buried embracing each other, were brothers. We show that the Mentesh Tepe Neolithic population is the product of a recent gene flow between the Anatolian farmer-related population and the Caucasus/Iranian population, demonstrating that population admixture was at the core of the development of agriculture in the South Caucasus. By comparing Bronze Age individuals from the South Caucasus with Neolithic individuals from the same region, including Mentesh Tepe, we evidence that gene flows between Pontic Steppe populations and Mentesh Tepe-related groups contributed to ...
Archaeological and archaeogenetic evidence points to the Pontic–Caspian steppe zone between the C... more Archaeological and archaeogenetic evidence points to the Pontic–Caspian steppe zone between the Caucasus and the Black Sea as the crucible from which the earliest steppe pastoralist societies arose and spread, ultimately influencing populations from Europe to Inner Asia. However, little is known about their economic foundations and the factors that may have contributed to their extensive mobility. Here, we investigate dietary proteins within the dental calculus proteomes of 45 individuals spanning the Neolithic to Greco-Roman periods in the Pontic–Caspian Steppe and neighbouring South Caucasus, Oka–Volga–Don and East Urals regions. We find that sheep dairying accompanies the earliest forms of Eneolithic pastoralism in the North Caucasus. During the fourth millennium bc, Maykop and early Yamnaya populations also focused dairying exclusively on sheep while reserving cattle for traction and other purposes. We observe a breakdown in livestock specialization and an economic diversificati...
Reports on the excavations and specialist studies carried out within the Kura Projects in Azerba... more Reports on the excavations and specialist studies carried out within the Kura Projects in Azerbaijan and Georgia, 2010 to 2016. The articles included in this volume refer to two research projects, the general idea of which was to give the cultural and landscape history during Holocene period a solid foundation with help from new excavations and surveys. Through detailed studies, the authors thematize aspects like environmental reconstruction, economic activities and symbolic acts, while the excavation results offer a look into hitherto unknown phenomena of the Neolithic and Chalcolithic of the Southern Caucasus. They demonstrate that the expansion of the agrarian lifestyle in the Southern Caucasus occurred in forms other than those of the Neolithic Expansion of Anatolian and southeastern Europe
With contributions by J. Abuladze, G. Ahadi, T. Aliyev, L. Astruc, K. Bastert-Lamprichs, E. Baudouin, F. Becker, N. Benecke, L. Bouqet, G. Bruley-Chabot, M. B. D’Anna, A. Decaix, E. Degorre, J. Fassbinder, M. Fontugne, I. Gatsov, D. Guilbeau, F. Guliyev, S. Hansen, I. Heit, B. Helwing, X. Husson, V. Ioseliani, E. Jovenet, S. Kroll, B. Kromer, G. Le Dosseur, B. Lyonnet, G. Mirtskhulava, P. Nedelcheva, R. Neef, D. Neumann, L. Pecqueur, M. Poulmarc’h, P. Raymond, A. Ricci, A. Samzun, D. Steiniger, B. Taha, M. Tengberg, M. Ullrich, J. Wahl, D. Zhvania
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Papers by Farhad Guliyev
With contributions by J. Abuladze, G. Ahadi, T. Aliyev, L. Astruc, K. Bastert-Lamprichs, E. Baudouin, F. Becker, N. Benecke, L. Bouqet, G. Bruley-Chabot, M. B. D’Anna, A. Decaix, E. Degorre, J. Fassbinder, M. Fontugne, I. Gatsov, D. Guilbeau, F. Guliyev, S. Hansen, I. Heit, B. Helwing, X. Husson, V. Ioseliani, E. Jovenet, S. Kroll, B. Kromer, G. Le Dosseur, B. Lyonnet, G. Mirtskhulava, P. Nedelcheva, R. Neef, D. Neumann, L. Pecqueur, M. Poulmarc’h, P. Raymond, A. Ricci, A. Samzun, D. Steiniger, B. Taha, M. Tengberg, M. Ullrich, J. Wahl, D. Zhvania