Skip to main content
European Commission logo
italiano italiano
CORDIS - Risultati della ricerca dell’UE
CORDIS
CORDIS Web 30th anniversary CORDIS Web 30th anniversary

Decoding economy of the Leylatepe communities in the Chalcolithic Caucasus through functional analyses of ground stone tools

Descrizione del progetto

Uso di utensili in pietra nel fenomeno del Leylatepe del Caucaso calcolitico

Durante il Calcolitico, l’Asia sud-occidentale era all’inizio della complessità sociale, caratterizzata da dinamiche economiche mutevoli e da una maggiore differenziazione sociale. Nel Caucaso meridionale, il fenomeno culturale del Leylatepe ha probabilmente svolto un ruolo chiave in questi processi, facilitando i trasferimenti transregionali e contribuendo allo sviluppo di reti artigianali e commerciali specializzate. Il progetto StoneCau, sostenuto dal programma di azioni Marie Skłodowska-Curie, esplora lo sviluppo socio-economico del Caucaso meridionale del tardo Calcolitico, concentrandosi in particolare sul fenomeno del Leylatepe. Il progetto include le prime analisi funzionali dell’usura di utensili in pietra provenienti da quattro siti di Leylatepe, nell’attuale Azerbaigian e Armenia. L’opera approfondisce la vita quotidiana, le scelte alimentari e le preferenze tecnologiche delle comunità di Leylatepe, esplorandone i legami con l’antica Mesopotamia.

Obiettivo

The project sheds light on socio-economic developments in the southern Caucasus during the Late Chalcolithic – a turning point on the pathway of human development, marked by the emergence of complex societies and early states within south-eastern Europe and south-western Asia. The study focuses on the nature and origins of the Leylatepe cultural phenomenon, which conveyed new trajectories in social differentiation, specialized craft industries, and interregional product exchange within the southern Caucasus and likely beyond, into the northern Caucasus, eastern Anatolia, and Syro-Mesopotamia. Despite that, the current state of research on the phenomenon is troubled by a narrow scope of reliable fieldwork data, lack of well-dated contexts, and publication scarcity.
The research is based on the analysis of ground stone tools retrieved from four sites located in present-day Azerbaijan and Armenia: Alkhantepe, Leylatepe, Janavartepe, and Teghut, which emerged as Leylatepe settlements at the onset of the Late Chalcolithic period, in different environmental settings. Late prehistoric ground stone tools remain greatly underinvestigated, even though they were integral to various subsistence and craft-related activities of agro-pastoral villages in transition to social complexity. An integrative approach is employed, encompassing complementary (microwear, experimental, technological, contextual) methods of functional analyses of the tools. The high-resolution excavations of German Archaeological Institute (Berlin) and the Institute of Archaeology, Ethnography and Anthropology (Baku) at Leylatepe and Janavartepe grant an unprecedented insight into the phenomenon. The project is designed to tap into that potential and, consequently, it will be the first to yield insights into daily lives, food choices, and technological preferences of the Leylatepe phenomenon, illuminating socio-economic dynamics within the Caucasian communities and their interactions with ancient Mesopotamia.

Campo scientifico (EuroSciVoc)

CORDIS classifica i progetti con EuroSciVoc, una tassonomia multilingue dei campi scientifici, attraverso un processo semi-automatico basato su tecniche NLP.

È necessario effettuare l’accesso o registrarsi per utilizzare questa funzione

Coordinatore

FREIE UNIVERSITAET BERLIN
Contribution nette de l'UE
€ 173 847,36
Indirizzo
KAISERSWERTHER STRASSE 16-18
14195 Berlin
Germania

Mostra sulla mappa

Regione
Berlin Berlin Berlin
Tipo di attività
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
Collegamenti
Costo totale
Nessun dato

Partner (2)