Maikop pottery in archaeological context – collecting basic data
Final Report Abstract
As part of the project, three Late Chalcolithic (4th millennium BCE) settlements were studied in 2020–2023. The study of the Sereginskoe settlement of the Maikop phenomenon (Adygea, North Caucasus) was interrupted by the Russo-Ukrainian War. Since 2022 the project continued at two Leylatepe settlements in the Karabakh Steppe (Azerbaijan). The Late Chalcolithic period is characterized by deep economic and social changes, including the rise of the first bureaucratic states, the emergence of written civilization in Mesopotamia and technological innovations. Both the Maikop and Leylatepe phenomena are often associated with Uruk migrants from Mesopotamia. The main evidence for the connection with Mesopotamia is pottery, which have become a key element of the study. Reexamination of the finds and the original documentation of the 1980s excavations, intensive survey, the use of drones and excavations have made it possible to create a new description of the Sereginskoe settlement and its material culture. Important results of the project are the new description of architecture, settlement plan, spatial distribution, stratigraphy, as well as ceramic typology and technology. Excavations were carried out at Janavartepe and Leylatepe, which was first identified in the 1980s and gave its name to the phenomenon. The most notable results of our work in Leylatepe were the clarification of the settlement's stratigraphy and the study of the two-chamber pottery kiln, very similar to the Late Chalcolithic Mesopotamian kilns. Approximately 70% of the pottery found in our excavations is made from the same clay, using standardized clay mixture recipe. Most of the vessels were manufactured using coiling technique. The potters used wheels for secondary formation. The Leylatepe pottery production tradition exhibits very specific and distinct features that distinguish it from the preceding, contemporaneous and subsequent South Caucasian pottery traditions. On the other hand, the Leylatepe pottery tradition demonstrates features similar to the pottery production of the Middle East in the 4th millennium BCE, such as the raw material standardization, morphological standardization, the use of the potter's wheel and two-chamber kiln. Demonstrating very similar pottery productions, Leylatepe and Janavrtepe differ in settlement layout, use of space, architecture and building materials. Leylatepe inhabitants built their rectangular houses using wide flat mudbricks. Janavartepe inhabitants, in contrast to the residents of Leylatepe, lived in round pit-houses built with a variety of construction techniques. At Janavartepe, for the first time in the Caucasian context of the 4th millennium BC, cretulae were found.
Publications
-
Initial Description of Ceramic Industries at the Sereginskoe Settlement. Brief Communications of the Institute of Archaeology 263: 409‒427.
Iserlis, M.; Brileva, O. & Dneprovskiy, K.
-
e-Jahresbericht 2022 des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts – Eurasien-Abteilung.
Bastert-Lamprichs, K., Boroffka, R., Hansen, S., Iserlis, M., Krumnow, J., Schlotzhauer, U.,Teufer, M., Thomalsky, J., Uhl, R. & Wagner, M.
-
Leylatepe und Janavartepe: zwei Siedlungen des 4. Jahrtausends v. Chr. in der Gharabagh –Steppe, Aserbaidschan. In: Archäologie in Eurasien. Berlin: 72–73.
Iserlis, M.
-
Tel Yaqush: Die Geschichte eines kleinen Dorfes. In: Archäologie in Eurasien. Berlin: 78–79.
Iserlis, M.
