CHRONOLOGY OF CULTURAL DEPOSITS OF THE CHOKH MULTILAYERED SETTLEMENT (ACCORDING TO 2022 DATA)

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.32653/CH183715-728

Keywords:

Chokh settlement, Mesolithic, Neolithic, Bronze Age, absolute chronology, radiocarbon dating

Abstract

 For the first time, we present the results of radiocarbon dating of cultural deposits of the multilayered Chokh settlement of Central Dagestan (North Caucasus, Russian Federation). The Chokh settlement consists of cultural layers of Neolithic and Bronze Ages. For many decades, it has remained a key site for characterizing the Mesolithic and Neolithic culture of the inhabitants of the mountainous part of the North-Eastern Caucasus. Until recently, ideas about the age of the cultural layers of the Chokh settlement were based solely on generalizations and interpretations related to data of relative archaeological chronology. In recent years, a total of 23 radiocarbon dates have been obtained for the cultural layers of the site. Of them, 15 were conducted in the Laboratory of Radiocarbon Dating and Electron Microscopy of the Institute of Geography of RAS and the Center for Applied Isotope Studies at the University of Georgia, USA; another 8 – in the Kiev Radiocarbon Laboratory. Most of them (16) correspond to the Bronze Age, two indicate the Neolithic age and four are associated with the Mesolithic layers. The obtained dates fill the chronological scheme with specific content, which was used earlier for the site and had more periodization than chronological meaning. Obtaining radiocarbon dates will provide a new look on a number of problems of the Mesolithic and Neolithic of the North-Eastern Caucasus, specify their formulation and find reasonable solutions. One of the main problems in this sense will be the time of transition in the North-Eastern Caucasus from an appropriating to a producing economy. According to the data presented in this paper, the domestication of animals and the cultivation of cereals in the region under consideration occurred no later than at the turn of the 7th-6th millennium BC. This fits well into the general context of cultural development in the Holocene of the entire Eastern Caucasus as a whole, including the entire southern part of this region.

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Author Biography

  • Hizri Amirhanovic Amirhanov, The Institute of Archeology Russian Academy of Sciences
    Bio Statement: : Doctor of History, Professor (Stone Age Archaeology), Full Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Corresponding Member of the German Archaeological Institute, Head of Department (Stone Age Archaeology) of the IA RAS, Deputy Academician-Secretary of the Department of History and Philology of the Russian Academy of Sciences Researcher focus: prehistoric archeology and ancient history of the Caucasus, Southwest Asia, Central and Eastern Europe; problems of cultural genesis and cultural geography of primitive; the initial resettlement of mankind; becoming productive economy; ethnoarcheology; archeolinguistics.

References

Amirkhanov HA. The Chokh settlement. Human and his culture in the Mesolithic and Neolithic of Gorny Dagestan [Chokhskoye poseleniye. Chelovek i yego kul’tura v mezolite i neolite Gornogo Dagestana]. Moscow, 1987.

Kotovich VG. Stone Age of Dagestan [Kamennyy vek Dagestana]. Makhachkala, 1964.

Amirkhanov KhA. Formation, taphonomy and dating of the Neolithic layer of the Chokh settlement: data revision. History, archeology, ethnography of the Caucasus. 2021, 17(3): 638-657.

Kotovich VM. Verkhnegunibskoe settlement [Verkhnegunibskoye poseleniye]. Makhachkala, 1976.

Nishiaki Y, Zeynalov A, Akashi Ch, Shimogama K, Guliyev F. The Mesolithic-Neolithic interface in the Southern Caucasus: 2016–2017 excavations at Damjili Cave, West Azerbaijan. Archaeological Research in Asia. Volume 19, September 2019.

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Published

2022-10-10

Issue

Section

Archeology

How to Cite

1.
Amirhanov HA. CHRONOLOGY OF CULTURAL DEPOSITS OF THE CHOKH MULTILAYERED SETTLEMENT (ACCORDING TO 2022 DATA). ИАЭК. 2022;18(3):715-728. doi:10.32653/CH183715-728