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Modern archaeological research carried out since the late 19th century has sufficiently demonstrated that the beginning of the food production economy and the establishment of a farming society had a significant impact on the shaping of subsequent human history. Accordingly, these processes of Neolithization have attracted a great deal of interest from archaeologists and anthropologists worldwide. The South Caucasus, i.e. the region discussed in this book, has remained one of the least studied regions in a modern sense. However, the research situation has improved remarkably since the 2000s, for a number of reasons, above all the increasing efforts of local and international archaeologists in collaboration.
Since 2008, the Azerbaijan-Japan Archaeological Mission has played a major role in elucidating the origins and developments of the earliest farming communities in the South Caucasus, conducting a series of field campaigns in West Azerbaijan. The remarkable achievements made thus far include the establishment of a secure chronological framework for understanding the Neolithization processes in the early 6th millennium BC through the excavations of two important Neolithic sites: Göytepe and Hacı Elamxanlı Tepe in the Tovuz region, representing the early and late phases of the Neolithic of the South Caucasus, respectively, dating from the early 6th millennium BC.
This volume presents a set of archaeological evidence obtained from the Azerbaijan-Japan excavations in 2016-2022 at Damjili Cave, West Azerbaijan. The cave contained cultural layers from the Mesolithic period in particular, along with Neolithic, Chalcolithic, Bronze Age and medieval material indicating a very long sequence of use. Earlier explorers recorded Middle Palaeolithic lithic artifacts, though no tools of this period were recovered during the recent program of work. Ten small trenches were excavated, revealing a considerable depth of deposits. Mesolithic lithic materials provided evidence for obsidian blade production. Neolithic levels, that included some amorphous limestone block structures, hearths and pits, produced flaked and ground stone tools, pottery and bone objects. Part of the cave at least was utilized in the medieval period with evidence for some built structures and several burials. A program of environmental sampling and both radiocarbon and luminescence dating were undertaken. Through combining the records of the late (Göytepe), early Neolithic (Hacı Elamxanlı Tepe), and Mesolithic (Damjili Cave) periods, our understanding of the Neolithization processes of the South Caucasus will be greatly improved. Data from a combination of three chronologically different sites provide the first opportunity to observe Neolithization processes with secure stratigraphic evidence in a small region of West Azerbaijan.
Contents
Preface
Yoshihiro Nishiaki, Azad Zeynalov, and Yaqub Mammadov
List of contributors
List of figures
List of tables
1. Introduction
Yoshihiro Nishiaki, Azad Zeynalov, and Yaqub Mammadov
Part I: Fieldwork at Damjili Cave in 2016-2022
2. Site reconnaissance survey in Avey Mountain and its vicinity
Yoshihiro Nishiaki and Kazuya Shimogama
3. Geomorphological settings around Damjili Site
Yuichi S. Hayakawa and Masuto Ebina
4 Excavations at Damjili Cave in 2016-2022
Yoshihiro Nishiaki, Azad Zeynalov, Yaqub Mammadov, Mansur Manslov, Ulviya Safarova, Kazuya Shiomogama, Shahin Salimbayov, Orkhan Zamanov, Takehiro Miki, and Saiji Arai
5. Radiocarbon chronology for the cultural sequence of Damjili Cave
Yoshihiro Nishiaki
6. Luminescence dating of cultural deposits at Damjili Cave
Toru Tamura and Yoshihiro Nishiaki
Part II: Artifacts and Subsistence Remains recovered at Damjili Cave in 2016-2022
7. Middle Paleolithic lithic artifacts from Damjili Cave
Yoshihiro Nishiaki
8. Flaked stone artifacts of the Mesolithic to Bronze Age periods at Damjili Cave
Yoshihiro Nishiaki
9. Mesolithic obsidian blade production technology at Damjili Cave
Fumika Ikeyama
10. Ground stone artifacts from Damjili Cave
Yoshihiro Nishiaki
11. Neolithic and Chalcolithic pottery from Damjili Cave
Takehiro Miki and Kazuya Shimogama
12. Osseous objects from Damjili Cave
Saiji Arai
13. A stone figurine from Damjili Cave
Yoshihiro Nishiaki
14. Macro-botanical remains from Damjili Cave
Chie Akashi
15. Faunal remains from Damjili Cave
Saiji Arai
16. Bronze Age and Medieval pottery and other Finds from Damjili Cave
Kazuya Shimogama
17. Damjili Cave in the context of Neolithization in the South Caucasus
Yoshihiro Nishiaki, Azad Zeynalov, and Yaqub Mammadov
Rezume
Azad Zeynalov, Yaqub Mammadov, and Yoshihiro Nishiaki
Appendix: Research at Damjili Cave in 1953-1957
Introduction to Appendix: Research at Damjili Cave in 1953-1957
Yaqub Mammadov, Ulviya Safarova, and Yoshihiro Nishiaki
A1. Scientific research on the Stone Age of Azerbaijan, Autumn 1953
Sergei N. Zamyantin
A2. Paleolithic site in Azerbaijan: Report of 1957
Mammadali M. Huseynov
A3. Palaeolithic station at Damjili Cave: Report of 195
Mammadali M. Huseynov
