ON SALT, COPPER AND GOLD: THE ORIGINS OF EARLY MINING IN THE CAUCASUS

该项目是以前分别在阿塞拜疆Duzdagi盐矿和Ovçular Tepesi定居点以及在格鲁吉亚Sakdrissi/Dzedzvebi金矿和相关景观进行的调查的发展。我们的研究计划将在两个地区进行：1）阿塞拜疆的Naxçivançay山谷（纳希切万）; 2）格鲁吉亚的Mashavera山谷。我们的工作将集中在盐和黄金的早期采矿和相关采矿经济，但也包括铜，因为主要的铜矿（Misdagi）在Duzdagi附近的Nakhchivan以及几个史前晚期定居点都得到了证实。（社会、经济、技术、环境），主导了高加索地区早期采矿业的发展（盐、铜和金），特别关注早期采矿与Kuro-Araxes文化复合体如此密切相关的原因。我们的目标是通过从采矿定居点（Kültepe I和Dzedzvebi）获得的数据，特别是关于技术、社会经济结构和生存战略的数据，来补充迄今为止从矿山本身（Duzdagi和Sakdrissi）获得的信息。在纳希切万，早期采矿和采矿经济的工作将扩大到Misdagi的铜矿和Zirinçlik的铜匠定居点。在格鲁吉亚和阿塞拜疆，考古发掘和调查将与具体的环境研究相结合，以完善我们关于生存战略的数据。这些研究的另一个目的是重建这些新技术（采矿、冶金）发展的环境背景。对动物牙齿（山羊）进行的同位素分析也将有助于评估畜牧业的性质（本地/长途），并为区域间交换（货物、动物、人）的强度提供间接线索。 还将通过对高加索地区（Ovçular Tepesi、Kültepe I、Zirinçlik、Dzedzvebi、Soyuk Bulaq、Sioni）以及安纳托利亚东部（Arslantepe）和伊朗西北部的黄金和铜人工制品的来源研究，研究采矿经济的扩展以及新技术对周边地区的影响。

This project is a development of previous investigations carried out respectively in Azerbaijan, on the salt mine of Duzdagi and the settlement of Ovçular Tepesi, and in Georgia, on the gold mines and related landscape of Sakdrissi/Dzedzvebi. Our research programme will take place in two regions: 1) the Naxçivançay valley in Azerbaijan (Nakhchivan); 2) the Mashavera valley in Georgia. Our work will concentrate on the early mining and associated mining economy of salt and gold, but also copper, since major copper mines (Misdagi) are attested in Nakhchivan in the vicinity of the Duzdagi, together with several Late Prehistoric settlements.The main objectives of this project will be to study the conditions (social, economic, technological, environmental) that presided over the development of early mining in the Caucasus (salt, copper and gold), with a special focus on the reasons why early mining was so intimately linked to the Kuro-Araxes cultural complex. Our goal is to complete the information so far retrieved from the mines themselves (Duzdagi and Sakdrissi) by data to be obtained from the mining settlements (Kültepe I and Dzedzvebi), especially as concerns technology, socio-economic structures and subsistence strategies. In Nakhchivan, work on early mining and the mining economy will be extended to the copper mines of Misdagi and the coppersmith settlement of Zirinçlik. In both Georgia and Azerbaijan, archaeological excavations and surveys will be associated with specific environmental studies in order to complete our data on subsistence strategies. Another aim of these studies will be to reconstruct the environmental setting in which these new technologies (mining, metallurgy) developed. Isotope analyses carried on animal teeth (caprines) will also help to assess the nature of pastoral herding (local/long-distance) and provide indirect clues to the intensity of interregional exchange (goods, animals, people). The extension of the mining economy, as well as the impact of new technologies upon surrounding regions, will also be studied through provenance studies on gold and copper artefacts from Caucasian sites (Ovçular Tepesi, Kültepe I, Zirinçlik, Dzedzvebi, Soyuk Bulaq, Sioni) but also from Eastern Anatolia (Arslantepe) and Northwestern Iran.