Earthworks in the Caucasus
The Neolithic earthworks on the Caucasus are located in the Russian administrative district of Stavropol , north of the border mountains in Europe , but also south of the Caucasus , in Azerbaijan and Asia . The analysis of aerial and satellite images from the 1970s and 1980s revealed over 30 previously unknown geometric structures between Stavropol and Pyatigorsk .
Previously, the earthworks had been mistaken for kurgan , which are particularly common north of the Caucasus from the Balkans to Siberia . When looking at the pictures it was found that a number of the findings cannot be Kurgan. Rather, they resemble circular systems that have been known from geophysical prospecting in Central Europe and England since the 1980s . In Azerbaijan, too, some of these somewhat out-of-round trenches were found and magnetometrically measured.
North Caucasus
For several years now, satellite and aerial images have also been evaluated as part of monument conservation work and in preparation for emergency excavations in the region. It was found that 13 of these systems are even visible on "Google Earth" images. When a scheduled flight took off from Mineralnye Vody , an aerial photo of another, previously unknown facility was taken.
First test measurements of the selected Tambukan and Marinskaja plants with the cesium magnetometer yielded the findings of earthworks with a diameter of about 80 m. Parallel to the four to five meter wide trenches on the inside, which show no signs of earth bridges, an approximately eight meter wide wall runs on the outside at a distance of 15 to 20 m. The Tambukan system thus has an outside diameter of around 150 m. The Marinskaya complex shows similar dimensions, but one third has been destroyed by the erosion of the slope side. An archaeological field inspection produced pottery from the Maikop culture (around 3700–2500 BC), which corresponds in time to the early Neolithic of Central Europe. In 2011 a test excavation in the Marinskaya trench could confirm this dating. Compared to the north alpine plants, the Caucasian earthworks are relatively well preserved and can even be seen in the topography. Wall and ditch can often be traced in the terrain. This is probably due to the fact that these areas did not come under the plow until the 1960s. It is noticeable that there are no other archaeological findings in the magnetic image of the facilities.
South Caucasus
The archaeological monuments of Azerbaijan have long been considered terra incognita . As part of the cooperation between the National Academy of Sciences in Baku and the German Archaeological Institute (DAI), investigations into the beginning of sedentarism in the Mil steppe have been carried out in the south-west of the country .
Geoarchaeological explorations show the picture of an economic settlement landscape. Between the Nagorno-Karabakh region and the plain on the Caspian Sea , Neolithic settlers found ideal habitats on the banks of the Kura and Araxes rivers and their branches.
Kamiltepe
Excavations on the Kamiltepe, in the administrative district of Agjabedi, revealed a monumental cult site from the 6th millennium BC. An adobe platform about 18 m in diameter and 2.4 m in height was used in the festive setting, as indicated by massive layers of ash and rich finds (fragments of cookware and other vessels, cooking stones and animal bones).
Further circular structures of a cultic character could be determined by geophysical measurements. Test measurements with the cesium magnetometer in the vicinity of a site revealed a ring trench system made up of four concentric trenches with a diameter of about 40 m, with bridge segments and a central pit complex and an access in the northern area. This trench system is cut by another earthwork in the northwestern area. Another moat system with a diameter of about 30 m is clearly visible only about 60 m away. The earliest sedentary village culture of the South Caucasian lowlands, characterized by agricultural subsistence, can also be seen in the archaeological evidence of a rural mud brick architecture . Round houses and right-angled floor plans of Neolithic settlement areas, in the vicinity of which large obsidian cores for the manufacture of stone tools could be found, were prospected upstream in the direction of Nagorno Karabakh.