Genomic history of Neolithic to Bronze Age Anatolia, Northern Levant, and Southern Caucasus

Here, we report genome-wide data analyses from 110 ancient Near Eastern individuals spanning the Late Neolithic to Late Bronze Age, a period characterized by intense interregional interactions for the Near East. We find that 6th millennium BCE populations of North/Central Anatolia and the Southern Caucasus shared mixed ancestry on a genetic cline that formed during the Neolithic between Western Anatolia and regions in today’s Southern Caucasus/Zagros. During the Late Chalcolithic and/or the Early Bronze Age, more than half of the Northern Levantine gene pool was replaced, while in the rest of Anatolia and the Southern Caucasus, we document genetic continuity with only transient gene flow. Additionally, we reveal a genetically distinct individual within the Late Bronze Age Northern Levant. Overall, our study uncovers multiple scales of population dynamics through time, from extensive admixture during the Neolithic period to long-distance mobility within the globalized societies of the Late Bronze Age. Video Abstrac

Emergence and intensification of dairying in the Caucasus and Eurasian steppes

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 diversification of dairy herds coinciding with aridification during the subsequent late Yamnaya and North Caucasus Culture phases, followed by severe climate deterioration during the Catacomb and Lola periods. The need for additional pastures to support these herds may have driven the heightened mobility of the Middle and Late Bronze Age periods. Following a hiatus of more than 500 years, the North Caucasian steppe was repopulated by Early Iron Age societies with a broad mobile dairy economy, including a new focus on horse milking.Peer reviewe

Emergence and intensification of dairying in the Caucasus and Eurasian steppes

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 diversification of dairy herds coinciding with aridification during the subsequent late Yamnaya and North Caucasus Culture phases, followed by severe climate deterioration during the Catacomb and Lola periods. The need for additional pastures to support these herds may have driven the heightened mobility of the Middle and Late Bronze Age periods. Following a hiatus of more than 500 years, the North Caucasian steppe was repopulated by Early Iron Age societies with a broad mobile dairy economy, including a new focus on horse milking.Peer reviewe

Emergence and intensification of dairying in the Caucasus and Eurasian steppes

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 diversification of dairy herds coinciding with aridification during the subsequent late Yamnaya and North Caucasus Culture phases, followed by severe climate deterioration during the Catacomb and Lola periods. The need for additional pastures to support these herds may have driven the heightened mobility of the Middle and Late Bronze Age periods. Following a hiatus of more than 500 years, the North Caucasian steppe was repopulated by Early Iron Age societies with a broad mobile dairy economy, including a new focus on horse milking.</p

Göytepe

Göytepe: Neolithic Excavations in the Middle Kura Valley, Azerbaijan, publishes the first round of fieldwork and research (2008-2013) at this key site for understanding the emergence and development of food-producing communities in the South Caucasus. Situated close to the Fertile Crescent of Southwest Asia, where Neolithisation processes occurred earlier, research in the South Caucasus raises intriguing research questions, including issues of diffusion from the latter and interaction with ‘incoming’ Neolithic communities as well as the possibility of independent local Neolithisation processes. In order to address these issues in the South Caucasus, a joint Azerbaijan–Japan research programme was launched in 2008 to investigate Göytepe, one of the largest known Neolithic mounds in the South Caucasus. The results of the first phase of the project (2008-2013) presented here provide rich archaeological data from multi-disciplinary perspectives: chronology, architecture, technology, social organisation, and plant and animal exploitation, to name a few. This volume is the first to present these details in a single report of the South Caucasian Neolithic site using a high-resolution chronology based on dozens of radiocarbon dates

Göytepe

Göytepe: Neolithic Excavations in the Middle Kura Valley, Azerbaijan, publishes the first round of fieldwork and research (2008-2013) at this key site for understanding the emergence and development of food-producing communities in the South Caucasus. Situated close to the Fertile Crescent of Southwest Asia, where Neolithisation processes occurred earlier, research in the South Caucasus raises intriguing research questions, including issues of diffusion from the latter and interaction with ‘incoming’ Neolithic communities as well as the possibility of independent local Neolithisation processes. In order to address these issues in the South Caucasus, a joint Azerbaijan–Japan research programme was launched in 2008 to investigate Göytepe, one of the largest known Neolithic mounds in the South Caucasus. The results of the first phase of the project (2008-2013) presented here provide rich archaeological data from multi-disciplinary perspectives: chronology, architecture, technology, social organisation, and plant and animal exploitation, to name a few. This volume is the first to present these details in a single report of the South Caucasian Neolithic site using a high-resolution chronology based on dozens of radiocarbon dates

Mud-bricks in Neolithic architecture at Göytepe

International audienc

Investigations of the Neolithic potteries of 6th millennium BC from Göytepe-Azerbaijan by vibrational spectroscopy and chemometric techniques

This article presents the results of the vibrational spectroscopic and chemometric analyses of Neolithic pottery remains excavated in Goytepe (Azerbaijan), a typical Shomutepe-Shulaveri culture settlement. Fifty-five pottery fragments, that were unearthed in the excavations of Goytepe during the 2009-2013 years, were investigated using Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) and micro-Raman spectroscopy. X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) was used as a complementary technique. The firing-temperature and -conditions were inferred from the mineral phases obtained from the vibrational spectra of the samples and were estimated to be between 600 degrees C and 750 degrees C in oxidizing atmosphere. As chemometrics, Principal Component Analysis (PCA) followed by Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA), were applied to the FTIR spectral data, in order to examine the possible classification of those findings, and to extract the most discriminant features. Pottery fragments were identified and characterized, depending on the excavation levels, by PCA-LDA analysis

Domed or flat? The case study of Building 21 at Kiçik Tepe (Middle Kura Valley, Azerbaijan) and a reconsideration of the Neolithic roofing architecture in the South Caucasus

International audienceThe site of Kiçik Tepe (Azerbaijan) is located in the Middle Kura Valley river. The archaeological material and radiocarbon dating attribute the oldest levels to the Neolithic period (5870-5750 BCE), and its circular architecture is characteristic of the Aratashen-Shulaveri-Shomu culture. The 2018-2019 excavation campaigns have unearthed Building 21, which was built with mud bricks and preserved over 1.4 m in height. The exceptional state of preservation of the building is due to a fire that led to the collapse of the walls and roof materials. Based on the archaeological results of the excavation and a multidisciplinary research combining a stratigraphic examination, an architectural study and an anthracological analysis, this paper proposes to reconstruct the elevation and the roof of Building 21. In addition, our questions will focus on a possible diversity of forms and roofing techniques in the Neolithic period as perceived in the archaeological literature. We also want to understand what factors (environmental, cultural, socio-cultural) may influence choices regarding roofing and whether they can be identified through archaeological evidence. This paper contributes to the current debate on the technical specificities developed by these communities with new data and thus to a better understanding of architecture in its three dimensions, to define the complexities linking cultural “behaviours”, building materials and architectural solutions among these Neolithic communities.Le site de Kiçik Tepe (Azerbaïdjan) se trouve dans la moyenne vallée de la Kura. L’ensemble du mobilier archéologique ainsi que les datations par radiocarbone permettent d’attribuer les niveaux les plus anciens à la période néolithique (5870-5750 BCE). Son architecture de forme circulaire en fait un site typique de la culture Aratashen-Shulaveri-Shomu. Les campagnes de fouilles menées en 2018 et 2019 ont conduit à la mise au jour du bâtiment 21, conservé sur une hauteur de 1,4 m. Construit en briques crues, l’édifice doit son état de conservation exceptionnel à un incendie qui a entraîné l’effondrement du mur et de la toiture. À partir des résultats archéologiques apportés par la fouille et d’une étude pluridisciplinaire combinant examen de la stratigraphie, étude architecturale et analyse anthracologique, cet article propose de reconstituer l’élévation et la toiture du bâtiment 21. Il propose également de s’interroger sur une éventuelle diversité des formes de toit (conique, en dôme, plat) au Néolithique telle qu’elle apparaît dans la littérature archéologique. Il s’agit également de comprendre quels peuvent être les facteurs (environnementaux, culturels, socio-culturels) à l’origine de cette diversité et s’ils sont perceptibles par l’archéologie. Cet article contribue à alimenter grâce à des données nouvelles la question des spécificités techniques développées par ces communautés et à mieux définir l’architecture dans ses trois dimensions afin d’appréhender la complexité liant « comportements » culturels, matériaux de construction et solutions architecturales au sein des communautés néolithiques