Alikemek-Tepesi (Alikemektepesi, Azeri: Əliköməktəpə) is an ancient settlement located in the Mugan plain in Azerbaijan, belonging to the Chalcolithic period, dating to c. 5000 BC.[1] Early levels belonged to the Shulaveri-Shomu culture. It covers an area of over 1 hectare.
Materials from this site are very close to the materials obtained from monuments of northwestern Iran (Dalma ware). The artifacts of the lower level are similar to those at Kültəpə I in Nakhchivan. In the upper levels, there is also pottery of the northern Ubaid period type.[2]
Some archaeologists speak of the ancient Alikemek-Kul'tepe culture of southeastern Caucasus, which followed the Shulaveri-Shomu culture, and covered the transition from the Neolithic to Chalcolithic periods (c. 4500 BC).
According to A. Courcier,
Situated respectively at the border of the Mugan Steppe and in Nakhichevan (Azerbaijan), the settlements of Alikemek and Kul’tepe I were excavated in the 1950s–1970s and are not dated with certainty. They probably represent a relatively long period and occupation seems to have started early (probably during the sixth millennium BCE) (Lyonnet 2008, pp. 4–6). The Alikemek–Kul’tepe culture covered the Ararat Plain, Nakhichevan, the Mil’skoj and Mugan Steppes and the region around Lake Urmia in north-western Iran (Kushnareva 1997, p. 33).[3]
See also
Notes
- ^ Махмудов Ф.Р., Нариманов П.Г., 1974. Поселение Аликемек-тепеси. АО 1973 г. М. (Russian)
- ^ Proceedings of the International Conference on The Beginnings of Metallurgy, Bochum 1995
- ^ A. Courcier (2014), Ancient Metallurgy in the Caucasus From the Sixth to the Third Millennium BCE. In B. W. Roberts, C. P. Thornton (eds.), Archaeometallurgy in Global Perspective. DOI 10.1007/978-1-4614-9017-3_22