3,500-year-old canteen found in Azerbaijan – Art

Imagine a kind of large canteen, with a circular shape, completely covered with cane, very organized, ceramic crockery and many braziers with places to cook for many people. Also, located in a broad position, it was clearly visible to travelers who traveled through the valley of the Kura River, probably nomads from the South Caucasus.

We are talking about a settlement dating back 3500 years, the first excavated to date, which appeared in Tava Teb, Azerbaijan, thanks to the work of the GaRKAP mission, a collaboration between the University of Catania and Florence CAMNES. Funded by the Academy of Sciences of Baku and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the High School of Archeology of Catania.

A unique discovery for both settlement types that opens up a new line of archaeological research in Azerbaijan.
The excavation is truly unique and will open new horizons in the study of ancient Caucasian civilizations and their social structure.
“It is difficult to find settlements like Dava Teb in this chronology: usually we dig gurgans (burial mounds built on top of graves) or look for settlements fortified by cyclopean walls in the mountains. But for all of us facing this, it is very interesting to understand how the nomadic elements have changed in the region,” said Azerbaijan National Academy of Professor Nicola Laneri, who co-directs the project with Bakhtiar Jalillo, Professor of Science, says:

Indeed, “work began in 2018 with the aim of studying the communities of the South Caucasus.
Between the 4th and 1st millennium BC, after excavating the Gurgaons of the 4th millennium BC, he focused on excavating this settlement, populated since 1500 BC, nowadays, the system of noble groups living in fortified settlements is known in the highlands. , but little is known about the settlements in the valley”.
“We started at Tawa Tepe by excavating residential structures, but last year we discovered a circular structure with a diameter of 15 meters, which contained another smaller one,” says the Italian archaeologist, adding that it may have looked like a ritual. As excavations progress the center has brought to light other key details “In the last few seasons, we discovered a deposit of ceramic pottery, we don’t understand why. It was followed by an area containing piles of ashes and animal bones and the remains of braziers used for cooking food”, the remains of which are still ceramic. Remaining in containers. So from the 15th century BC to at least the 8th century BC, people may have met here to share food, but the still unsolved mystery is whether they did so with a ritual purpose or whether the center served travelers.
In fact, we found “tokens in the ‘kitchen’, clay tokens with human footprints. This discovery helps to complicate the question: what are these tokens for? Their presence makes us think that there was a dynamic of exchange, but we do not know how we interact with the community of nomads, but at the same time agricultural communities in the area. There must have been, and perhaps “tokens” functioned as an element of exchange that represented a larger complex of social organization”.

But there is another “extraordinary” element, Professor Laneri explains before returning to Italy, where he will give a preview of the discovery on Friday 12 July at the international archaeological film festival Naxos Archeofilm at Gabriella’s invitation. Dicano, archaeologist and director of the Naxos Taormina Archaeological Park, which organizes the event. “The unusual nature of the find lies in the very high density of food – at least 100 mugs were found – which were placed in the outer circle of the building, which contained food remains” cooked in the canteen.
In short, this is a unique settlement (“other similar settlements were found in Georgia and Armenia, but not in this area and less with a kitchen”), and one that the research team is very proud of and which will allow new projects to be developed in Azerbaijan.

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