Assessing the Origins, Symbolic Significance, and Social Meaning of Dalma-Type Impressed Pottery on the Basis of Evidence from Nakhchivan and Karabakh
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.69760/aghel.026002016Keywords:
Dalma, impressed pottery, Nakhchivan Tepe, Karabakh-Mil Plain, Neolithic, cultural transmission, South CaucasusAbstract
The impressed pottery of the Dalma tradition was distributed across a wide area extending from the Urmia Basin to the South Caucasus during the fifth millennium BCE. However, the mechanisms underlying this distribution remain insufficiently understood. The Late Neolithic layer uncovered during the 2019 excavations at Nakhchivan Tepe provides an opportunity to reassess this issue. At Nakhchivan Tepe, impressed pottery was recorded stratigraphically prior to painted pottery, a sequence that differs significantly from the classical Dalma stratigraphy. Petrographic and archaeometric analyses indicate the coexistence of stylistic homogeneity and raw material variability. This suggests that the spread of this pottery tradition was associated less with the exchange of finished products than with the transmission of technological knowledge. Radiocarbon dates from Neolithic sites in the Karabakh-Mil Plain indicate an earlier presence of this tradition in the South Caucasus than in the Urmia Basin. These results support a multi-centred model involving Karabakh, Nakhchivan, and the Urmia Basin.
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