The Mesolithic-Neolithic Transition in the South Caucasus: Cultural Transmission and Technology Transfer

The development of Neolithic in the South Caucasus remains a poorly understood phenomenon. The first agricultural communities have been identified at sites such as Aratashen and Aknashen. They are semi-sedentary group living in mud brick houses, with the earliest layers of these sites already showed fully domesticated species Conflicting hypotheses have suggested both a local independent agricultural development or a full population replacement by neighboring Near Eastern groups. Therefore, my project was dedicated to the identification of possible contacts between groups in this region and external groups, and how to characterize these interactions in order to understand how Neolithic came into being in the South Caucasus. The lithic model that I have developed focuses on the social aspect of technological practices. It assumes that stone tool production sequences are culturally specific, and that they may be shared in full only through complete access to the place of teaching, the enculturating environment. I have studied five lithic assemblages from four different sites were studied and compared. Two sites were “Mesolithic”, i.e., relying on hunter-gatherer modes of subsistence (Kmlo-2 and Bavra-Ablari), and two sites were Neolithic (Aknashen and Aratashen). Therefore, we were able to reconstruct this scenario, putting forth that the first contact between Near Eastern farmers and groups living in the South Caucasus may have taken place during the 9th millennium BCE. These contacts remained outside of the enculturating environment, but led to the diffusion of a very specific tool type known as the Kmlo, or Çayonu, tool. Early in the 6th millennium BCE, groups settled in the southwest Caspian belt moved within the South Caucasus, settling in the river valleys of the Kura and the Araxes. There, they interacted with existing Mesolithic communities following an open-static-parasitic frontier model involving unilateral movement of goods from the Neolithic to the Mesolithic groups. Such contact, taking place outside of the enculturating environment, was probably the result of transhumance of agricultural groups entering Mesolithic ecological niches. However, this did not lead to the adoption of agriculture by local groups, who were most likely pushed out of the areas in which they had previously lived.Anthropolog

Obsidatabase : Collecter et organiser les données relatives à l'obsidienne préhistorique au Proche-Orient et en Transcaucasie

International audienceThe study of the phenomenon "obsidian" has long made possible to address the interactions between geographically and culturally distant groups. The accumulations of data concerning the prehistoric obsidian in the Middle East and Transcaucasia, as well as the development of new techniques for physicochemical characterization have created a considerable and very diverse amount of information. Obsidatabase is a project for collecting and consulting geological, geochemical and archaeological data related to prehistoric obsidian in this region, facilitating access and sharing of information, and their export to Geographic Information Systems.L'étude du " phénomène obsidienne " a depuis longtemps permis d'aborder les interactions entre groupes géographiquement et culturellement distants. L'accumulation des données concernant l'obsidienne préhistorique au Proche-Orient et en Transcaucasie et le développement de nouvelles techniques de caractérisation physico-chimiques ont permis la création d'une quantité considérable d'informations de natures diverses. Obsidatabase est un projet permettant la collecte et consultation de données géologiques, géochimiques et archéologiques liées à l'obsidienne préhistorique dans cette région, facilitant l'accès et le partage des informations, ainsi que leur exportation vers des Systèmes d'Information Géographique

La néolithisation du Caucase : nouvelles questions posées par l'abri de Bavra-Ablari (Géorgie)

Les hautes terres du Sud Caucase (fig. 1), qui s'étirent entre mer Noire et mer Caspienne, sont présentées tantôt comme une zone périphérique du Proche-Orient et tantôt comme un territoire dont le relief et les ressources naturelles ont favorisé un développement culturel original. Malgré les recherches archéologiques intensives menées pendant et après la période soviétique et le récent développement des collaborations internationales, de nombreux problèmes persistent quant à la reconstruction..

Dépasser la méthode de moindre coût pour mesurer l'accessibilité: Exemple de l'étude des réseaux d'échange préhistorique de l'obsidienne du Moyen-Orient

International audienceIdentifying exchange networks, often through the study of raw materials or skill diffusion, needs an efficient reconstruction of past human movements. Movements are done through physical landscape, the main issue for the geographer is therefore to reconstruct relevant pathways and a relevant network. Obsidian sourcing enables a precise identification of geological outcrops and is a useful method to understand raw materials and lithic skills diffusion. We present an exchanges analysis of obsidian materials and artefacts during the Neolithic and Bronze Age from Anatolian geological sources to the archaeological sites throughout the Middle East. Obsidian movements show evidence of these exchanges and human mobility, but also of an early structuration of this territory with archaeological sites and circulation routes. These routes can be highlighted with GIS technologies like cost surface analysis (cost-distance, shortest path) and flow analysis (current and centrality maps).Rendre compte des réseaux d'échanges de matières premières et de propagation de savoir-faire entre une série de sites archéologiques nécessite une représentation pertinente des réseaux passés. Comme ces échanges sont inscrits dans un territoire défini, l'enjeu dès lors pour le géographe est de fournir une dimension spatiale pertinente du réseau décrivant les transferts d'obsidiennes (du Néolithique à l'Âge du Bronze) depuis les sources géologiques d'Anatolie vers les sites archéologiques du Moyen-Orient. Cette mobilité de l'obsidienne témoigne non seulement des transferts de matière première, de la mobilité des hommes et des techniques, mais aussi d'une structuration précoce de ce vaste territoire par des sites archéologiques et des axes de circulation. En nous appuyant sur l'étude de ces transferts d'obsidienne, nous exposerons les principales méthodes SIG fondées sur les analyses de coûts (cost-distance, shortest path) et sur les analyses de flux (current et centrality maps)

From the Mesolithic to the Chalcolithic in the South Caucasus: New data from the Bavra Ablari rock shelter

The site of Bavra-Ablari is a Mesolithic-Chalcolithic rock shelter, located on the Javakheti plateau in the valley of a tributary of the Kura River, in southern Georgia. Excavations have been carried out by a Georgian-French team since 2012 and have shed light on processes that took place during the Early Holocene. The Mesolithic layer of the site shows an occupation, not yet fully excavated, which will provide important chrono-cultural information about the exploitation of the mountainous areas during the ninth millennium BCE. The Neolithic occupation chronologically matches the first evidence of agricultural society in the Near East during the sixth millennium BCE, and is characterised by a combination of Neolithic and Mesolithic features. The Chalcolithic layer produced a significant collection of material that supports a re-occupation of the highlands during the fifth millennium, as well as the development of subsistence strategies adapted to this environment