Göytepe: Neolithic Excavations in the Middle Kura Valley, Azerbaijan

This volume publishes the first round of fieldwork and research (2008-2013) at Goytepe, a key site for understanding the emergence and development of food-producing communities in the South Caucasus. Results include findings relating to chronology, architecture, technology, social organisation, plant and animal exploitation, and more.

Goytepe: Neolithic Excavations in the Middle Kura Valley, Azerbaijan, publishes the first round of fieldwork and research (2008-2013) at this key site for understanding the emergence and development of food-producing communities in the South Caucasus. Situated close to the Fertile Crescent of Southwest Asia, where Neolithisation processes occurred earlier, research in the South Caucasus raises intriguing research questions, including issues of diffusion from the latter and interaction with ‘incoming’ Neolithic communities as well as the possibility of independent local Neolithisation processes. In order to address these issues in the South Caucasus, a joint Azerbaijan-Japan research programme was launched in 2008 to investigate Goytepe, one of the largest known Neolithic mounds in the South Caucasus. The results of the first phase of the project (2008-2013) presented here provide rich archaeological data from multi-disciplinary perspectives: chronology, architecture, technology, social organisation, and plant and animal exploitation, to name a few. This volume is the first to present these details in a single report of the South Caucasian Neolithic site using a high-resolution chronology based on dozens of radiocarbon dates.

"Preface - Yoshihiro Nishiaki and Farhad Guliyev
Chapter 1: Introduction - Yoshihiro Nishiaki and Farhad Guliyev
Part I: Field Investigations
Chapter 2: Geomorphological settings of Goytepe - Yuichi Hayakawa
Chapter 3: Stratigraphy and architecture in the main excavation area of Goytepe - Yoshihiro Nishiaki, Farhad Guliyev, Fuad Hoseynov, and Kazuya Shimogama
Chapter 4: Excavation, stratigraphy, and architecture of Square 4B at Goytepe - Seiji Kadowaki, Yui Arimatsu, and Yoshihiro Nishiaki
Chapter 5: Soundings at the edges of Goytepe - Yoshihiro Nishiaki, Yui Arimatsu, and Saiji Arai
Chapter 6: Mud-bricks in Neolithic architecture at Goytepe - Yoshihiro Nishiaki, Farhad Guliyev, and Emmanuel Baudouin
Chapter 7: Geoarchaeological investigation of storage space at Goytepe: Phytolith, dung spherulite, and micromorphological analyses - Seiji Kadowaki, Lisa Maher, Marta Portillo, and Rosa M. Albert
Chapter 8: Archaeological reconnaissance survey around Goytepe, Tovuz-Qovlar region - Kazuya Shimogama and Valeh Alakbarov
Part II: Technology and Subsistence
Chapter 9: Neolithic flaked stone assemblages from Goytepe - Yoshihiro Nishiaki
Chapter 10: Use-wear analysis of chipped stone artifacts from Goytepe - Katsunori Takase
Chapter 11: Fracture wing analysis for identification of obsidian blank production techniques at Goytepe - Jun Takakura and Yoshihiro Nishiaki
Chapter 12: Neolithic ground stone typology and technology at Goytepe - Seiji Kadowaki
Chapter 13: Neolithic pottery from Goytepe - Yui Arimatsu (with an Appendix by Takahiro Odaka)
Chapter 14: Neolithic figurines from Goytepe - Kazuya Shimogama
Chapter 15: The Neolithic bone and antler industry from Goytepe - Saiji Arai
Chapter 16: Plant remains from Goytepe - Chie Akashi and Ken-ichi Tanno
Chapter 17: Faunal remains from Goytepe - Saiji Arai ", Preface – Yoshihiro Nishiaki and Farhad GuliyevYoshihiro Nishiaki and Farhad Guliyev Part I: Field Investigations Yuichi HayakawaYoshihiro Nishiaki, Farhad Guliyev, Fuad Hoseynov, and Kazuya Shimogama Seiji Kadowaki, Yui Arimatsu, and Yoshihiro NishiakiYoshihiro Nishiaki, Yui Arimatsu, and Saiji AraiYoshihiro Nishiaki, Farhad Guliyev, and Emmanuel BaudouinSeiji Kadowaki, Lisa Maher, Marta Portillo, and Rosa M. AlbertKazuya Shimogama and Valeh Alakbarov Part II: Technology and SubsistenceYoshihiro NishiakiKatsunori TakaseJun Takakura and Yoshihiro NishiakiSeiji KadowakiYui Arimatsu (with an Appendix by Takahiro Odaka)Kazuya ShimogamaSaiji AraiChie Akashi and Ken-ichi TannoSaiji Arai