Kültəpə

Kültəpə
Municipality
Kültəpə
Coordinates: 39°16′13″N 45°27′07″E / 39.27028°N 45.45194°ECoordinates: 39°16′13″N 45°27′07″E / 39.27028°N 45.45194°E
Country  Azerbaijan
Autonomous republic Nakhchivan
Rayon Babek
Population
 • Total 1,859
Time zone AZT (UTC+4)
 • Summer (DST) AZT (UTC+5)

Kültəpə (also Aşağı Gültəpə, Gültəpə, and Kyul’tepe) is a settlement dated from the Eneolithic epoch, a village and municipality in the Babek Rayon of Nakhchivan, Azerbaijan. It has a population of 1,859.

In 1951, archeologist Osman Habibulla began excavation in the settlement, clarifying the stratigraphy and cultural strata of the area. The tell was much disturbed in the past.

As excavators had found, the town features a cultural layer with the total depth of 22 m. The earliest 9 m of this belongs to the Copper Age. On top of that are the remains of the Bronze Age, and then the Early Iron Age.

At each of these layers a variety of artifacts were found: pottery dishes, cattle-breeding and agricultural implements, adornments, weapons etc.

In the Eneolithic layer the excavators discovered remains of buildings, as well as burial places. These buildings were round as well as rectangular-shaped, and were made of mudbrick. The diameter of the round constructions was around 6–8 meters. The rectangular ones are about 15 sq. m in size. These structures were typically connected with agriculture.

85 burial places were investigated in the Eneolithic layer. In 31 of those excavators found pottery dishes, items made of bones and stone, and beads.

Soviet scientists decided that Kultepe is the place where the first items made of copper-arsenic alloys, dating back to the 4th millennium BC, were found in the South Caucasus.[1]

The local method of arsenic copper production was confirmed by results of chemical investigation and casting forms and the remains of casting discovered there.[2]

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References

  1. ↑ Всеобщая история химии. М.: Наука, 1980, 399
  2. ↑ [Селимханов И. Р., Торосян Р. M. Металлографический анализ древнейших металлов в Закавказье.- Советская археология, 1969, ј 3, с. 229-294]

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Literature