Region | Asia | American Journal of Archaeology

Syncretic Religious Practice at Dedoplis Gora (Caucasian Iberia) in the First Century CE

website — Tue, 16 Dec 2025 22:12:33 +0000

Monuments discovered through archaeological excavations provide information about the pre-Christian religion in Kartli (Caucasian Iberia, modern Georgia). Particularly remarkable is a grandiose temple complex discovered in central Georgia, where the kings of Kartli worshiped Iranian (Zoroastrian) gods merged with local Georgian astral deities. In the Dedoplis Gora palace, which is located 3 km south of the temple complex, three rooms (N10, N20, N26) yielded sanctuaries. The presence of three household sanctuaries in one building suggests that they had different users. In this article, I suggest that room N10 with an altar was a Zoroastrian-type domestic shrine where permanent residents of the palace of Dedoplis Gora offered daily sacrifices and prayed. Meanwhile, the noble owners of the palace prayed in room N20, based on the luxurious items found on the altar. It is likely that the Zoroastrian altar in room N20 was used to worship the Greek cult of Apollo, based on the statuettes found there. Room N26 may have been used for a ritual related to a local cult of fertility, agriculture, and harvest. Coexistence of different religions in the same household is not surprising in the kingdom of Kartli in the first century.

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Chronological Contexts of the Earliest Pottery Neolithic in the South Caucasus: Radiocarbon Dates for Göytepe and Hacı Elamxanlı Tepe, Azerbaijan

aja — Wed, 01 Jul 2015 13:39:45 +0000

Research on the earliest Neolithic in the South Caucasus is still in its early stages. Establishing a solid chronological framework will help determine the timing of the emergence and subsequent development of regional Neolithic societies. This article reports on 46 radiocarbon dates obtained from the two recently excavated Early Pottery Neolithic sites of Göytepe and Hacı Elamxanlı Tepe, the oldest farming villages known to date in West Azerbaijan. Comparing the dates from other related sites demonstrates that several settlements representing the earliest Pottery Neolithic emerged almost simultaneously at the beginning of the sixth millennium B.C.E. in the northern and southern foothills of the Lesser Caucasus Mountains. The lack of evidence for plant cultivation or animal husbandry at earlier sites suggests a foreign origin for agricultural economies in the South Caucasus. However, cultural items characterizing the initial agropastoral communities were not brought to the region as a package. Instead, we suggest that these early farming communities—that is, the Shomutepe-Shulaveri—underwent gradual but significant autochthonous developments likely deriving from the aceramic stage. The chronological framework provided by Göytepe and Hacı Elamxanlı Tepe serves as a reference point for identifying details of early farmers’ cultural developments in the South Caucasus.

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Divination and Sovereignty: The Late Bronze Age Shrines at Gegharot, Armenia

aja — Wed, 17 Sep 2014 13:14:04 +0000

The advent of the Late Bronze Age (ca. 1500–1250 B.C.E.) on the Tsaghkahovit Plain in central Armenia witnessed the establishment of a series of hilltop fortresses following a 900-year hiatus in regional occupation. These new settlements testify to the emergence of a South Caucasian political tradition founded on the regularization of radical inequality, centralizing practices of economic redistribution, and new institutions of rule. However, the discovery of three shrines and associated assemblages at Gegharot, one of the primary fortress sites, also suggests that divinatory practices were critical to the emergent principles of regional sovereignty. In this article, we present the evidence for esoteric rituals—particularly osteomancy, lithomancy, and aleuromancy—within the shrines at Gegharot, situating them within the available comparanda from the Caucasus and adjacent Near East. We further examine how divination—a technique for mitigating risks posed by unsettled presents and uncertain futures—provided a key source of power vital to sovereignty.

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The Spatial Organization of Ai Khanoum, a Greek City in Afghanistan

aja — Mon, 24 Mar 2014 13:51:33 +0000

The excavations of the Greek settlement of Ai Khanoum took place between 1965 and 1978; they are not yet fully published, and work is still in progress. This article presents the spatial organization of the town by taking into account the results of recent research, which help clarify the different stages of its history. Ai Khanoum was founded as a city by the Seleucid king Antiochos I (r. 281–261 B.C.E.) and thereafter underwent development, particularly from the beginning of the second century. But it was only under Eucratides (r. ca. 170–145) that it took the form we now know. Several elements considered in this article shed light on the nature and functions of the settlement: its urban organization, the division between public spaces and private spaces, and the extent of Greek influence on these elements. We know that Ai Khanoum was a royal residence and that the Seleucid and Graeco-Bactrian kings were very much present there throughout its history. It may have looked like other eastern royal capitals of that time, whose architecture, which combined eastern and Greek influences, was inspired by that of the royal residences of the eastern part of the Seleucid kingdom.

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Empire in the Everyday: A Preliminary Report on the 2008–2011 Excavations at Tsaghkahovit, Armenia

aja — Sun, 22 Dec 2013 20:57:21 +0000

Between 2008 and 2011, the joint American-Armenian project for the Archaeology and Geography of Ancient Transcaucasian Societies (Project ArAGATS) conducted archaeological excavations at the Iron Age settlement of Tsaghkahovit in central-western Armenia. This work built on research begun in 2005 to closely examine the materiality of social and political life in a rural settlement of the Achaemenid Persian empire (ca. 550–330 B.C.E.). Intensive investigations at Tsaghkahovit have revealed the remains of a community clearly enmeshed in select sociopolitical institutions of the empire yet one also committed to reproducing and revising the contours of everyday life on the Armenian highlands on its own terms. The site thus invites consideration of the quotidian material and spatial practices of imperial subjects who both sustained and attenuated the viability of Achaemenid sovereignty in the Armenian satrapy. This article reports on recent excavations and offers preliminary interpretations of the findings.

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Early Complex Societies in Southern Caucasia: A Preliminary Report on the 2002 Investigations by Project ArAGATS on the Tsakahovit Plain, Republic of Armenia

aja — Fri, 28 Sep 2012 14:47:08 +0000

The Late Bronze Age (ca. 1500–1200 B.C.) in southern Caucasia marked the first appearance of a radically altered regional sociopolitical tradition founded upon newly empowered elites sequestered in fortified citadels. The archaeology of the era indicates a significant break from the preceding Middle Bronze Age, when large burial mounds and a dearth of settlement sites have long suggested the prevalence of pastoral nomadism and mobile sociopolitical institutions. The patterns of social order and institutional formation that developed in the Late Bronze Age appear to have endured well into the Iron Age, exerting a profound impact upon later historical empires, such as Urartu. The investigations of Project ArAGATS are examining the rise of complex societies in Caucasia by detailing the nature of social organization and the apparatus of political authority that constituted this emergent tradition. Having completed an archaeological survey of the Tsakahovit Plain region in 2000, we initiated phase II of our investigations in 2002 with intensive excavations at Tsakahovit and Gegharot fortresses, two settlement sites with well-preserved strata from three major archaeological periods: the Kura-Araxes III phase of the Early Bronze Age, the Late Bronze Age, and the Yervandid period of the mid first millennium B.C. (sixth–third centuries B.C.). The Early Bronze Age settlement at Gegharot is notable not only for its unexpected large size, good preservation, and terraced construction, but also for the illumination it promises to shed on the terminal era of the Kura-Araxes horizon. With the discovery of stratigraphically superimposed Late Bronze Age and Yervandid occupations at Tsakahovit, continuing research at the site promises to shed light on both the initial emergence of sociopolitical complexity in southern Caucasia and the reconfiguration of local practices in the aftermath of the Urartian imperial collapse.

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On the Edge of Empire: 2008 and 2009 Excavations at Oğlanqala, Azerbaijan

aja — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 16:50:51 +0000

The nature of political complexity in the Caucasus has emerged as a significant research question in Near Eastern archaeology. Until recently, archaeological developments in Azerbaijan have been left out of this discussion. Two seasons of survey and excavation undertaken by the Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences and the University of Pennsylvania at the Iron Age site of Oğlanqala in the Naxçıvan Autonomous Republic of Azerbaijan have begun to clarify the local origins of an Iron Age polity and its relationship to major Near Eastern empires, including Urartu, Achaemenid Persia, and Parthia. Situated in the northern half of the fertile Şərur Plain, Oğlanqala was in a position to control a pass through the Dərələyəz Mountains as well as the agricultural land of the plain. Indeed, in the Iron Age, the Şərur Plain was a complex landscape dominated by Oğlanqala but including at least six other fortresses and many cemeteries. The 2008 survey revealed that Oğlanqala was founded in the Early Iron Age and has extensive Middle and Late Iron Age material. Excavations in 2008 and 2009 in the citadel and domestic buildings uncovered architectural and ceramic differences from contemporaneous Urartian, Achaemenid, and classical sites, while also revealing evidence for interaction among them.

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Technologies of Memory in Early Sasanian Iran: Achaemenid Sites and Sasanian Identity

website — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 12:00:00 +0000

This article analyzes the techniques by which the kings of the early Sasanian dynasty engaged the past and shaped the experience of future generations. I concentrate on the innovations and legacy of the first two kings of kings of the dynasty, Ardashir I (r. 224–239/40 C.E.) and his son Shapur I (239/40–270/2 C.E.). These sovereigns fashioned a new and politically useful vision of the past to establish their dynasty’s primacy in Persia and the wider Iranian world, eclipsing their Seleucid, Fratarakid, and Arsacid predecessors. I identify and examine the artistic, architectural, and ritual means by which the early Sasanians conformed the built and natural environment of their homeland to their grand new vision of the past. I argue that the Achaemenid patrimony of the province of Pars played an important role in these efforts, serving as inspirations and anchors for the Sasanians’ new creations.

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New Excavations of the Early Nomadic Burial Ground at Filippovka (Southern Ural Region, Russia)

website — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 11:42:00 +0000

From 2004 to 2007, nine burial mounds were excavated at the Filippovka burial ground, located in the Orenburg region of Russia. The most significant burial is a huge royal kurgan (Kurgan 4) that was largely undisturbed. Excavation of this kurgan yielded burial goods of precious metals, examples of sophisticated Animal Style art, and important new information on burial ritual. A depiction of an Achaemenid king on an object found in Kurgan 15 suggests a burial date in the second half of the fifth century B.C.E.; other finds, however, suggest a fourth-century B.C.E. date. In either case, the burial belongs to the Early Sarmatian culture of the southern Ural region and provides significant information on the cultural origin of the southern Ural early nomadic population. The goal of this report is to introduce the finds to western scholars who may not have access to the Russian-language publications of this and other materials from Sarmatia.

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Making Nations from the Ground Up: Traditions of Classical Archaeology in the South Caucasus

website — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 13:42:00 +0000

Building on the incipient institutions of the Russian empire, the Soviet Union produced the largest school of classical archaeology beyond the Euro-American academy. This article presents the intellectual history of classical archaeology in one part of this vast Russo-Soviet sphere, the South Caucasus. Although sharing a common historical framework with the discipline as practiced in the West, classical archaeology in the South Caucasus was founded and developed on rather different grounds. This paper probes the beginnings, and subsequent institutionalization, of antichnaia arkheologiia, or ancient archaeology, from the 19th century until the present, providing a regional account in the decades before World War II, followed by a more focused analysis of developments in the Republic of Armenia in the subsequent decades. The purpose of this historical anthropology of the discipline is twofold: to detail the workings of an archaeological tradition in a part of the world that, since the collapse of the Iron Curtain, increasingly has become an area of interest to Western scholars; and to denormalize our own disciplinary culture and consider what (if any) lessons might be learned from a classical tradition alternative to the one in which Western scholars have been enculturated.

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