Variability in Obsidian Blade Production Technology of the Neolithic Southern Caucasus: New Data from Göytepe and Hacı Elamxanlı Tepe, Azerbaijan

抄録

Recent investigations in the Neolithic Southern Caucasus have shed new light on the advent and development of Neolithic culture in the area, which is thought to have emerged around 6000 B.C.E., likely as a result of interaction with the Neolithic communities of bordering regions to the south. Given the geographic and environmental diversity of the Southern Caucasus, the corresponding regional variability of the culture is increasingly attracting attention. Focusing on obsidian pressure blade technology in the region, which is often treated generically so far, this paper investigates the variability in this technology and then makes comparisons among contemporaneous sites. Based on the examination of blade cores obtained from the Neolithic sites of Göytepe and Hacı Elamxanlı Tepe in the Middle Kura Valley, two techno-typologically distinct core types were defined—namely, unifacial and circumferential blade cores. Further, the distribution patterns of the detected technological traces on the surface of the cores, likely caused by firm immobilization for a lever or long crutch pressure debitage, appeared to correspond to the defined core types. Considering the distribution pattern of surface stigmas vis-à-vis the specific blade core type, strategies involving multiple blade production technologies, perhaps each employing different immobilization devices for pressure debitage, can be assumed to be present at the two sites studied. A preliminary comparison with contemporaneous sites on the Ararat Plain in the Araxes Valley provided the basis for considering the regional needs and tradition behind the assumed blade production strategy, probably specific to Middle Kura Valley. Nevertheless, the newly defined and potentially unique unifacial core type may provide a clue to trace technological variability among regions. By exploring the regional variability of the blade production technology through this new perspective, vital questions regarding the Neolithization process or the relationship among groups at that time can be addressed.